Sunnyquilts

Christmas

2011-12-24T08:15:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas.

Sunna.

Eight quilts found a new home

2011-12-24T08:08:00.000-08:00

The first photo shows the quilting in one of the quilts shown in the last photo. I'm blogging for the first time since Blogger changed and I'm having some difficulty adjusting.

All the photos show quilts that went to a new home this December, there are lots of children that come to this home to stay, some for long periods, other stay not as long and I gave the quilts to the home with the words that it was up to the workers there if the quilts would be given to the children, or if the quilts would belong to the home. I took the photos at my mom's home. The panels are from old curtains that I was given because the owner could not bear to throw them away.

There are three elephant/lion quilts.

I wish now that I'd only made two of them, with six animal each, like the doll quilt.

When I was quilting the panel quilts I got to thinking that the older kids tend to be forgotten so I finished making the rest of Bonnie Hunter's Virginia Bound blocks that I'd used some of to make the quilt I sent to Japan, there were three more stars in the Japan quilt so I made the top and bottom border bigger to get it to similar size.

I also finished Log Cabin blocks that I'd been making, using strips that for various reasons were not fitting in with the hero blocks I sometimes make for my guild. There is no log the same in these 7" blocks and I love how the quilt turned out. I'm definitively going to make more of those blocks and I'll be using this setup again too.


Two more of the smallest quilts.

Boy, am I having trouble with this new blogger features.

I was going to make good on a promise to post about my sewing machines, but I can't find the photos I'd taken of them and I don't even have four of them around as they are in the city undergoing repair and/or cleaning and oiling. I have no idea when I'll get my machines home, but I will make a post about them when I have them back.

One of the machines was given tome last November. It's a Pfaff 262 (made in 1965- 68) cabin (hope this is the right word) machine and I've sanded and oiled the cabin. It's looking good although the door is missing. The machine itself has a very good motor, but there are to many things wrong that it would cost as much as a new machine to fix it proper.

So the repair man is going to fix it so it sews straight stitch only and I'm happy with that. You wouldn't believe how beautifully quiet the motor sounds. I'll be able to sew long into the night without bothering hubby after I move the sewing room upstairs to the room next to the master bedroom. LOL.

Sunna.

Finished quilts

2011-06-17T17:17:00.001-07:00

DD1 wanted to give a baby quilt to friend that had a girl in May so I made this for her. I used happy blocks from Mary's tutorial. Fast and fun to make and they make a beautiful quilt.

A quilting detail.

I finished this quilt in the end of Marsh and mailed it to Japan in early April. I used more than half of the blocks I'd made for the Virginia Bound quilt from Bonnie Hunter's book, Scrap and Shirttail (I think I remember this right) I named the quilt Japan Bound.

Details.

This quilt, a mystery named Circle of Friends, from a Yahoo group I'm in is a birthday present to my older brother who lives in Denmark. He will turn 50 in two days and I hope the quilt will have reached him then. I quilted this in early June.

The back is a part of curtains I got at Good Will. They are very soft and I got seven pieces that will most likely be enough for the back on six quilts. I made Japan Bound also with this backing and I love how it turns out.

In May I quilted this quilt for a dear friend of the family who was graduating from college. This is Dinah's Delight, a mystery from Iowa Star Quilts. I added the four patches on top after I made the quilt to short when I decided all those green borders were just to much, and cut most of them away. A decision I regretted because I figured out after the deed that I'd only needed to cut some of the side borders to make me like it better.

Detail.

I got me new glasses in May and have since then finished hand sewing the binding on the back of both my California Christmas (mystery from Bonnie Hunter) quilts. It's great to be finally able to to hand work while watching TV. I quilted those two quilts last winter.

This is the Christmas Star part who belongs to hubby now. The blocks are 16 " and there was one left that I later used as a center in an international Round Robin I'm in. My center is now in Japan at it's last stop.

Back of Christmas Star, I think I quilted it (the sashings) a bit to much.

The Poinsettia part has not gotten a home, it will in time, just not jet and I will say no more about it. Lol.

This is the back, I thought about quilting it some more, but then figured it would be an over kill. I like it best as it is.

My goodness, how very productive I appear when I post so seldom. LOL.

That's it for now.

Sunna.

Fjallkonan 17 júní 2011

2011-06-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

Fjallkonan, or the Lady of the Mountain this year in Bolungarvík was my DD2 Ebba.

June 17th is the Icelandic national holiday and it is tradition to have the Lady of the mountain recite a patriotic poem at the celebration. The Lady of the Mountain always wears this costume which is one of the Icelandic national costumes. The name, Lady of the Mountain, is a metaphor for a free Iceland. If you are interested you can read about it here.

This costume is not a true costume, it's made of velvet with painted on pattern and poly lace. A true costume is made of wool (black) and hand embroidery at the bottom of the skirt and sleeves and on the front of the bodice. Like in this photo.

It's been much to long since I've posted, I wont promise to be more active but I'll try.

Sunna.

Lots of Tops.

2011-03-08T07:04:00.001-08:00

I have been busy lately sewing when I should really be quilting, but I feel like sewing so that's what I've been doing.

This morning after milking it finally felt like there was no wind so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take some photos in a good light.

This is what I took with me out to the clothes line.
A basket full of tops.

First of all is my version of the Thread Head quilt along I told you about in last post. The top is finished and as you can see I had to really stretch the golden brown fabric to make it last for the bprders. Lol. It measures 74 x 56 inches.

There was some light breeze, but I managed to get photos of all the tops, here is a mystery from a yahoo group called Threads_Of_Friendship. The quilt is called the Friendship quilt and I did it after the mystery was revealed. I used 2 3/4" strips instead of 2 1/2" as I have a lot of them stored since doing mysteries from Iowa Star Quilts. I also only sewed the last strips around every other block to use them as sahsings. It became very dark so after I put a 2 3/4" inner border with the same fabric as in the corner stones I compensated by putting a much bigger, lighter outer border. It measures 76 x 59 inches. Bigger than I meant to make it, but that's how it wanted to be.

Then come some tops I'm making for my free motion practice/charity. They are made out of panels cut from curtains and lots of scraps that I've been sewing together in twos for years. These smaller tops measure 40 1/2" x 33 1/2". Here the only difference is the outer borders. The left is from a quilt fabric, the right is from a curtain bought at Good Will.

The difference here is the thin inner border, well, aside from the panels being mirrored. Wow, that's a word. Lol. The outer fabric is very old from my Granny Bubba. It's rather coarse and only measured 33" wide. I've taken it out many times for use, but it never felt right until now. I got this really nice feeling when I laid the fabric next to the half sewed top. I guess Bubba amma is happy too.

The last of the smaller ones has a border made of old curtains, bought some time ago at Good Will. Lovely fabric shop, Good Will. LOL.

This top measures 51 x 40 inches and the border (which I will also use as backing) is from a duvet cover bought at.... you guessed it, Good Will.

And in the end comes a girly quilt that I have still not finished quilting. I was quilting it when my Janome 6600 started complaining about not having had a check up in the four years I've had it. I've got the Janome back home now, running ever so smoothly, just haven't felt like quilting. That will hopefully change in the near future. This quilt measures 46" x 39". I'm not sure what I was thinking when I made the top and bottom border so much thinner. Now that I think about it I seem to remember not having enough of the fabric. Plan ahead, plan ahead.... measure fabric, measure top.... (see first top at the top of post) LOL.

That's it for now.

Sunna.

Flying geese, quilting and quilt along.

2011-02-28T15:31:00.000-08:00

I have tried many different techniques to make Flying Geese or the other unit (like when making the Poinsettia block) and have not been happy with any of them. Gradually I found out my own way to make the Geese and although I try new techniques when I come up on them I always go back to my way, that can be described as cut before sewing. I like using my 6" ruler with the yellow line from corner to corner best.

But sometimes it gets lost in the clutter in my sewing room and then I use my triangle ruler. Those are the Poinsettia units, as you can see, not the Flying Geese. I can't find the pics. I have, where I took photo of every step. This is the last step, a white square placed on top of the unit and then cut in the right direction, If you cut in the other direction you end up with a FG.

I have finished quilting the birthday quilt for hubby, just straight lines, but I like it.

Here is the back, I've been waiting for my Janome's to come home from the service they had so I could sew the binding on. Well the machines are home, but I've been busy doing some happy sewing instead of the obligation ones. (And believe me, binding feels like a obligation). That quilt is over a year late so it doesn't matter if it waits a little longer. Lol.

This is what most of my time has been spent on, the Thread Head Quilt Along. It began last October, but I only learned of it recently and started on it last Friday. I've made seven of the eighteen blocks that will be in the quilt and five of the alternate blocks. I'm only making one of each block instead of two as most others are making. If all goes as planned I'll have made the blocks by the end of the week. The eighteenth block was posted last week so I'm not that far behind. I'm using solid white as a background in all the blocks.

I scanned the blocks and as they are 9 1/2" they didn't quite fit in the scanner so there are corners missing on two sides. And the colors are not quite true, but I'll post a photo (taken outside) when the top is done and then the colors should be more true.

Block # 7.

Hm... Block # 6 seems to be lost in space somewhere.

Blocks # 5.

Block # 4.

Block # 3.

Block # 2.

Block # 1.

Alternate block.

It has been great fun making thees blocks, but the reason for the Flying Geese talk in the beginning is because of the new (to me) technique that Joanne of Thread Tales uses. And I'm simply not good at it so I ended up "doing it my way".

I've also made lots of tops in January and February for kids, that will be given to charity when they are done. I'm using them as a practice pieces for my free motion quilting so there is a bit of selfishness in there somewhere. Lol. Will post photos later.

Sunna.

Big Quilts

2011-01-27T03:56:00.000-08:00

I took on a task for a friend of mine, to thread baste a big top she had made to give her daughter. When the basting was done I agreed to machine quilt it too. I wisely did not measure it before quilting it, if I had I would have given up before I began. Here it is laid out on my bed, it was to big to take outside to my laundry lines for a photo. The day was a bit overcast so the photos are rather dark, which is not so bad cause it makes the quilting not show as well as if the day had been bright.

This is certainly not my best work, but I simply had trouble handling the bulk of the quilt while free motion quilting it and my Janome 6600 with it's 9" throat space got pretty annoyed there at the end. It's working still, but it's long overdue for a checkup. So, I need to figure out how to get it across country to the repair man. This morning I suddenly remembered that I saved the box the machine was in when I bought it (at least four years ago). Sometimes I do get things right. I should be able to send my Janome safely with a truck company, but I think I'll buy an insurance all the same, just in case. I really, really like that machine.

I took this photo standing on the steps you can see in the first photo, it's hopefully dark enough. LOL. The computer I usually make these posts on shows photos very dark, I'll have to check this post on my laptop to see if the quilting shows. Oh, well, it is what it is. Anyway, the quilt is beautiful, I absolutely love some of the fabrics used in it.

That's all for now.

Sunna.

PS. Forgot to mention how big this quilt is..... I had no help when I measured it, but it's ca. 90" x 100" For me that is humongous and a bit scary because I have two tops in progress that are of similar size. Sigh. Not good, not good at all.

Solstice.

2010-12-21T16:26:00.001-08:00

Today was cloudy with snowing on and off and it was little lighter than twilight at two pm. so there was no trace of sun for me to photograph. I don't think there would have been any sun shining on the mountain anyway. When I was in next town well over a week ago I noticed that the sun shone on just the highest top of the mountains there.

Today there are 33 - 34 days until the sun shines on my home again, that is if the weather permits. It's traditional to bake sunny pancakes on the day we see the sun (it actually shines on us) I was going to make a post about it last January and had actually taken photos to go with it. Maybe I'll remember to do it when the day comes this time.

I thought a photo of our Christmas tree would be better than nothing. This was taken in 2008 and there are lights on the tree, they just don't show on the photo. I really would like to own a better camera.

We have a normal winter weather at the moment, but they say it will get warm again in a few days, until then it's storms and such.

Today I and hubby gave up, sigh, we went on facebook. Yikes. What a time thief.

Sunna.

Road to Heaven

2010-12-17T16:02:00.001-08:00

I have one more finish and I'm feeling good. It's a Christmas present and has started it's journey to the new owner. This is one more mystery from Cynthie at Iowastarquilts named Road to Heaven and I added a 2" border to make it a bit bigger.

It was dark when I finished sewing down the binding with help from my mom who came for a visit and as she was leaving the next morning while it would still be dark and taking it with her I took a photo with all the lights on in my bedroom. It was not enough, lol.

I don't have the patience to sit and draw patterns on paper so I usually just jump right in and quilt on my machine. I'm getting better at some patterns and for this quilt I chose flowers, leafs and something that turned out to be sort of feathers. I think. At least sometimes. Click on the photos to enlarge them if you want to see more details.

It's faaar from perfect, but I see progress and I'm content. And that is a good feeling.

I'll tell you after Christmas who's the new owner.

Sunna.

The Sun.

2010-11-28T10:35:00.001-08:00

I know this is a bit of an over kill, three posts in one day, but I forgot this photo that I wanted to show you. I took it at 1.30 pm. today when I was photographing the Christmas Light quilt. This is how far down the mountain side the sun shines today. If we have a clear sky on December 21. (Solstice) I'll try to remember to take a photo, to show you how far the sun rays reach then.

The car with the lights on is hubby's work car, called the "sperm car". He was on his way to some farms to meet a couple of cows that were eagerly waiting for him. Lol.

Sunna.

Marathons and Christmas.

2010-11-28T08:19:00.001-08:00

I mentioned in the last post that I've been in a marathon sewing lately. I've been sewing up loads of these things for our rescue team Christmas lotto. These Christmas socks were panels and I and another woman added beads and such to them, I and another woman quilted them and then I offered to finish the socks. It was so dark when this photo was taken you can't see the beading much, but it turned out okay. I would never have thought I would have so much fun doing beading, but I did. Not as much fun as sewing and quilting though.

Then there are the table toppers and runners. I've quilted and put the binding on 10 - 12 of them, I've lost the count. And some of them I also put together from already made blocks. I liked this one best. There are more things I've been making, along with other women and we will have a good load of winnings.

On our guilds sewing day in early October there was a talk about a Christmas quilt show and the members were asked to look through their Christmas things for quilted items. I have given most of mine away so I didn't think much of it, but then later, last Monday to be precise, decided to quilt my Christmas Light top for the show that started yesterday.

Yeah, I know, not the best of ideas, time wise. But I have a good friend that I also mentioned in my earlier post. Mary who lives in Kansas and she does the most beautiful quilting and has given me tips and encouragement to tackle mine. And last week, finally, I was ready to sit down, let go and just quilt. The beginning in the center of the quilt is not so pretty, but I decided to let it stay as is, as a reminder of the journey, so to speak. I got better as it got along and the white border is my favorite. I'm really happy with the quilting on it. The blue and red border are not as good, but by then I had little time and I was also simply tired.

While making this quilt I used a lot of fabrics that didn't play well with others, like the blue and the green f.e.s. (The colors don't show true in the photos, they are more bright in reality) The red for the setting triangles was the only fabric that was remotely Christmassy that I had enough of so it got used. Lol. I also had no fabric that went well as the outer border and decided to use this red, purple and pink fabric my mother gave me a few years back. It made the quilt much to red, but I kind a liked it anyway.

Since I used up difficult fabrics in the top I used lots of left over thread both for the top and the back while quilting. (I had no time to order and wait for thread) The darker under thread shows a bit in some places, but I was determined that I would not let that bother me... and it doesn't. Lol.

I made up the pattern of the mistletoe leafs, but the stars and loops I'd seen somewhere before, don't remember where though.

I see in this photo that the backing shows through the white border, I think that's only because the quilt is hanging on the clothes line. The days are so dark at this time of the year that this is not noticeable when the quilt is lying flat on bed, or when I hold it up inside the house.

I hope you can see what I wrote on the label that I made in haste, I will make a better one later. This quilt was a mystery from Bonnie K. Hunter at Quiltville. It was posted in the Quiltmaker magazine in three steps, starting in the July/August issue. I got the mag in August so the quilt has been over a year in the making. I never got the last issue of the magazine so I finished the top after seeing photos of it at the quiltvillechat on Yahoo.

I usually have no problem deleting photos from my posts (accidentally) but I can't get rid of this one. I guess someone want's you to see all the mistakes I made while quilting the center. Lol. If I'd had more time I would have ripped out lots of seams and also gotten better thread, both for the back and front, but I'm content. It is what it is and I'm learning/practicing.

The backing is a flannel that I bought as a cover for a double sized duvet. It was on a sale and I thought that would make me feel okay to use it. Lol. Not really, the other half of it is not as ugly because there the colors are reversed, the hearts are dark and the background light and I think I'll have no problem using that for a back later.

Now, here come the punch lines. When I finally had the quilt ready, midday Friday, I phoned the lady from our town that was helping put up the show.... and she said: "No thank you, we have much to much of things for the show as is".

That was a big blow to say the least. So I said thank you and good bye, turned of the phone and then sat for a while with the adrenalin still on full steam, from hours of hand sewing the binding down in a race against time.

So what does that teach me. Lol. The quilt has been decorating my bed since Friday and is the first sign of Christmas in our home this year. Which reminds me, it is the first Sunday in advent today and I need to find my advent ring (a direct translation) I bought the candles for it a while ago, just hope I didn't put them in the "good place". I need to find them today, not sometime after Christmas. Lol.

Sunna.

Sunshine and Blue Skies.

2010-11-28T06:51:00.000-08:00

I have befriended many quilters since I started my sporadic blogging. I have a wonderful friend in Mary from Kansas whom I'm corresponding with through e-mails, though I admit I lapse in much to long silences in between. But there are other ways to gain friends.

On June 1. I got an e-mail from a lovely lady named Eleanor from New York. We are both members of Quiltville chat on Yahoo and she was wondering about the volcano eruption in Eyjafjallajokull. I answered and we became friends real quick. I've gotten so much fun out of our communication, not to mention how our e-mails have broadened my horizon.

She mentioned one day that she was making me something and I thought: okay, a little bag or an apron or a small wall hanging or something. Imagine my surprise when I opened the packet I got late October and out came this beautiful quilt.

Eleanor liked the Fractured Star block that she saw on my blog (June 17. 2009) so much and wanted to make some. She alternated (by accident) the lights in the first block she made, but liked it so she made all the blocks like that. She also did not turn the blocks on point like in the quilt I made (Nov 29 2009 and Dec. 20. 2009) Sorry, I don't know how to link to the posts.

Here is the back, it's a real eye opener for me and I know how I'll be "signing" my quilts in the future. You can click on the picture to enlarge it, same goes with all the other photos.

Here's a close up of the quilting, it was long arm quilted for Eleanor and I don't know the name of the pattern, but it reminds me of the sun and sun rays.

Here is the quilting on the back.

Next three photos are close ups of the great, fun labels on the back.

I know the internet has made our world smaller, I just wished it was smaller in reality so I could pop over to Eleanor and thank her for her generosity, this quilt came to me when I was having a rather difficult day, but after opening the packet I sailed through the day with a smile all around. I will treasure this quilt always and not least because it contains fabric from an old blouse that belonged to Eleanor. We are alike in that, using old clothes and curtains and such.

I was going to post about this sooner, but the weather was always so bad whenever I was ready to photograph the quilt, or I wasn't at home when the weather cleared. Then after I got the photos I started a sewing and quilting marathon that ended last Friday. That will be a material for another post.

So, my dear friend Eleanor, thank you again. I took the quilt to a yoga session last week and the class had started when I finally came there because I met one of hubby's aunt (by marriage) who's a quilter and she had to have a good look at the quilt I was carrying in my arms. She loved it too, as have all that have seen it.

Sunna.

Road to heaven.

2010-10-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

Just a short note, we've been invited to a birthday party this evening. Hubby's niece turned 16 a few days ago.

I went to a retreat on the last weekend in September. It was at the same location as last year, Reykjanes in Isafjardardjup. I'm sure this retreat is here to stay, so to speak. It was great and I started this quilt there. I had cut the strips for it long ago and read the instructions at the same time. So I only glanced at the instructions when I started to subcut the strips. Not good. Lol. I turned everything up side down so the dark fabric is light in my top and the light dark. Also had forgotten that I needed light fabric for another project so I'd pulled all of those strips from the box where this was stored.

So it's a bit busy, but I like it and will finish it before Christmas. Enough said of that. This was a mystery from Iowa Star Quilts and I had fun making it as all the mysteries from Cynthie. (Although it was no longer a mystery when I made it.)

Sorry for the dark photos, the afternoon was cloudy and windy and those were the only photos that were not blurred. Here is a closer look.

I was going to show another project I worked on in Reykjanes, but can't find the photo I took a few days ago and now I also can't find the project. Duh. This clearly indicates that I need to take a firm hand with my sewing room. Lol.

And on a bit embarrassing note... Those sheep that came home today are not the sheep we thought they were.... I admit it freely. I don't know my sheep. Sigh. One was the ewe we thought was still missing, turned out she had two lambs, not one. And the other plus two lambs is from Baer in Sugandafjordur, far from our farm and I don't know if the owner has had a sheep come here before. If you take a straight line on a map there is one big sheep farm between Os, the farm where we live and this farm Baer and also one small sheep farm. Sheep are rather territorial so it's strange that this sheep showed up here. We think she must have gone first to Isafjordur and then to Hnifsdalur before she came to our pasture (Oshlid) or maybe it only went over some mountains and straight to Hnifsdalur. Who knows. I once heard of a sheep with two lambs that went in one summer from a place near Blonduos to a place near Egilsstadir. And that is straight across Iceland.

What happened to my short post???

Sunna.

Good sheep, naughty sheep.

2010-10-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

One month ago we had our round up day, or herding or what ever you call it. The law says you have to get all sheep from summer pasture before winter so in September there are roundups all over the country.

It's kind a sad how few sheep are left in our area. Not so many years ago the flock was a much more impressive sight.

Here they are coming toward the common fold. There are common folds all over Iceland. Ours is not very big compared to some (most).

In the front are sheep from us, I'm guessing they know the drill and just want to get it over with. Lol.

Here is DS1 Jon (the bearded man on the right) looking for his sheep.

DD2 Steina has found one of ours.

Here is DD2 Ebba in our section of the fold, taking care of the book keeping.

And here is DS2 Johann doing what is called chatting over the fold wall, because the folds used to be made of stone and turf walls. Some still are (or parts of them) and are preserved as some sort of monuments.

For some this is the best way to observe the sheep.

Now, we got most of our sheep home at this point, but there were still three ewes missing along with five lambs. And that is not good, sometimes it's the herders fault when the sheep don't show up at the fold, but sometimes it's the sheep fault. They can really play hard to get and it's easy for them, considering that the pasture is partly rocky mountain side and higher up there are difficult cliffs. So... we slaughter sheep that don't come home at the first roundup or soon after. In our opinion it's crazy to own sheep that you put your self and others in danger "collecting". Those sheep are naughty, very naughty.

Six of the sheep have been seen repeatedly since the first roundup, but they have been at a difficult location and the weather has been so good (they are much more difficult to herd in good weather, simply don't want to come home) that they were left alone... until now.

It's getting colder and tomorrow we expect some snow or at least sleet. So this morning my SIL hubby went with two of their sons and collected the sheep. It went very well and they brought them home where I and Johann stood before them as we call it and guided them to the rest of our sheep.

Here they are coming and trying to go the shortest way to get in the fence where the other sheep are. You can click on all the photos to enlarge them.

We got to do some running when one of the ewe's tried to trick us and went to the beach and the rest followed. You can see by the open mouth of the lambs how winded they are. They usually don't have the stamina the ewes have.

And here they are fenced in together with the rest of our sheep.

Just after we got the sheep fenced in, Ebba came home from work and came to see which ewes had come home and what ewe is still missing along with the lamb.

We've had much autumn rain on and off for weeks so the ground is getting very muddy. For me, this is always a very irritating time because the mud gets so easily inside the house and lets face it, I'm not much of a housekeeper. Lol.

Tomorrow will most likely be a slaughtering day, the lambs will most certainly go, but I'm not sure about the ewes. One is owned by my SIL son (the one with the blue cap in the front of the photo) so she will most likely live, but the other..... we'll see.

I meant to do this sheep post in September, but we've been having connections problems on and off, mostly on, for so long that I've sort of given up on blogging and blog reading. We had no phone or Internet from Oct. 7 until Oct 14 and I decided enough is enough. Yesterday I read some of the blogs I've not looked at for a long time, lost connection a few times, but stubbornly plodded on, so....

While making this post I've lost connection twice... I'm going to click on "publish post" with the hope that the post will indeed get published and not lost. I hate when that happens. If all goes well I might even try for a quilty post later today.

Sunna.

P.s. We are told we will get a new phone line later (when the tunnel making on our farm land, that I've not talked about here because it just makes me so mad sometimes, is finally completely over) Phew.

Thread basting.

2010-08-31T16:19:00.000-07:00

This is the bottom photo, read on. lol.

This was taken at guild meeting last winter, I'm sewing the poinsettia blocks from the Bonnie Hunter mystery, Carolina Christmas. (I'm usually one of the last lo leave)

And here is one of the blocks. The quilt would have been so huge if I'd made it as it was supposed to be made so I changed it in to two quilts and one Round Robin center.

Here I was about two weeks ago, thread basting this part of my Carolina Christmas.

A better view.

I've also thread basted the other half, the Christmas Star part and two other of Bonnie's mysteries, Double Delight and Christmas Lights. They are ready for quilting. Not only that, I'm also ready for quilting. lol. Now I can grab a quilt and get to quilt it right away when the mood strikes.

This top is a mystery from Iowa Star Quilts, called Dinah's Delight. I didn't follow the guide lines while putting it together, there are supposed to be sashings, but I was so utterly fed up with doing the sashings on both of the Carolina Christmas tops that I changed it. I also did not piece the setting triangles like I should have. I wasn't happy with all this green and was thinking about ripping out the green fabric when I got this marvelous idea.

Why not just cut some of the green away? Yeah, right. Now it's to short, but I like it better though. So, I'm going to make a pieced border on one end and then add a strip of green. I think that will make it okay.

Would you believe it, I just deleted the photo with the top after I'd cut of most of the green, uploaded it again and I don't know how to move it down here so it's up on the top of the post. Now it's after midnight and I missed making this an August post as I intended it to be. I'm sleepy, that's a good excuse, guess it's time to post this and go to bed.

Sunna.

Blomaros. (Flower girl)

2010-08-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

Do you know the feeling that someone is watching you and you can see movement out of the corner of your eye, but when you look there is no one there. Well, I experienced this one fine day this summer when I went out to hang laundry on my clothes lines. So I looked and then I looked some more and finally I managed to look at the right moment and saw who was moving there.

Couldn't you see her? Maybe this angle is better (and adjustment of the camera).

There she is in all her glory. She's one of three heifers that were not pregnant when we let the heifers go on the summer land this summer. So they stayed home, one turned out to have some internal problems and is waiting for a ride to the slaughterhouse, but this one and the third are okay and hopefully pregnant by now. For obvious reasons I've named her Blomaros. She's an absolute darling, curious and sweet tempered.

You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Sunna.

Not another month

2010-06-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

will go by without a post from me. I hope I'll be able to post this one as the connection here at my house is VERY unpredictable. We need to get some answers as to what is going on. Some days we have no connection at all, other days there is a slooow connection from time to time and you can't work on the net because you'll never know if the connection holds. It's not so bad for me, but hubby has to make and send reports on the net and he sometimes tries again and again only to have all his work lost. Now that's a bummer.

So, on happier note. Here is a table topper I made just after the Easter. It was a mystery posted on Quiltblockswappers. A group I'm a member in on Yahoo. It ended up on the dining room table at the apartment my daughter shares with two of her friends. If you click on the photo it enlarges so you can better see the decorative stitch I used in the quilting.

Here are some of my Learn a New Block Challenge blocks I'm doing. They are from Michele who is a wonderful lady from the before mentioned Yahoo group. It's so much fun doing those blocks and I've gotten lots of feedback on them because of the black background. That was a challenge for me as I've been stuck on light backgrounds. No more. I'm cured or liberated or ... what ever.

I'm good, hope you are too. Lol.

Sunna.

Finish.

2010-04-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

I have a much longed for finish. The Launch Swap quilt is finally done. I posted about the swap in July last year and the top has been ready since September and partially quilted since October when I started doubting my quilting skills. I've decided to throw all self doubt out and just quilt the tops that are waiting. I have four ready and more in the making.

Here is the newest top, the Christmas Star blocks will be Hubby's TV cuddly quilt and I had an inspiration earlier today as to who gets the Poinsettia quilt. I'm not telling now though.

If you click on the photos they will enlarge.

Sunna.

This and that.

2010-04-01T05:50:00.001-07:00

This post is posted 4 or 5 days after most of it was made due to power loss.

I've been sewing a lot but have no finishes to show you. Here is my version of Christmas Star which is a part of Bonnie's Carolina Christmas Mystery. I have thirteen of these 16.5" blocks.

Since the loss of electricity I've made these blocks into a top, using twelve of the blocks with sashing and bricks I think they're called rather than corner stones. Will post a photo later, it's been to windy and snowing on and off, not good for photoing.

They are supposed to be partnered with these forty eight Poinsettias (8,5"). And this would make a humongous quilt. I'm not much interested in so big quilts so I'll make something else out of this. At one time I had three, maybe four quilts in mind, but that changes from day to day. We'll see what I come up with. Those were fun to make although I got a bit tired of all the matching seams.

I have also started sewing with these blocks, with sashing and cornerstones into a top.

Now here is the first round of fun blocks (also 8,5") that I'm test sewing with some great women on a Yahoo group called Quiltswappers, (here is where I lost power) there's one more which I've jet to make. The woman we are testing for sends us the fabric cut and ready to sew, how great is that. I chose black kona for my background and felt quite daring, lol, I've been so stuck on light backgrounds since I started quilting that it was long past time for me to try something new. I love it.

I've been doing a mystery called Dinah's Delight from Cynthia at IowaStarQuilts this is what I've done so far and I found out tonight that the last step has been posted so I'm sure I'll soon get itchy to finish it in to a top at least. There is just one of each blocks (9,5") shown here.

Here is a cosmetic bag I made for a young girl who had her confirmation on last Sunday. This is the front, sorry how bad the light is. The bag is made of bits of old jeans from my kids and old lace from my Granny Bubba.

And this is the back. I've made loads of these bags through the years, I use an old fleece throw as batting and the sippers I've ripped out of old gym bags and such. The only new thing is the inside lining (usually some pretty cotton) and the binding which is solid blue cotton.

I'd better post this now, it's snowing heavily at the moment and you never know.... Lol.

Happy Easter.

Sunna.

How to cure an applique disaster.

2010-03-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

I have looked everywhere but can't find my camera, aha, DS1 just came home and he'd taken it (not for the first time) without asking. He asked once to borrow the camera years ago when it was new, the yes he got then is apparently valid for life. I do need to correct that assumption.

So, I scanned the appliqued blocks I wanted to show on my blog tonight. I have made 16 of these flower blocks. Two days ago when I started to square them up and sew them together with some other appliqued blocks I found out the flowers and leafs were all misplaced.

They should sit over one inch lower (nearer the bottom edge of the block) on the background so the connecting pink ribbon would go under the flower. I swear I felt all my internal organs sink like rocks way down to my abdomen, not a nice feeling. And I've been thinking and thinking about what to do, finally deciding to rip out all the applique and start over, but aw... 16 blocks.

Then this evening I went to a bee meeting and took the blocks with me to start ripping, but also hoping the good ladies I'd meet would have some miracle solution.

When I spread the blocks out and told them about the problem I saw the solution at the same time they did. Wow, it was so simple and perfect and I'd been totally blind to it, after all, who can think clearly with all their organs misplaced?

I simply moved the ribbon a little higher to fit the flower. These blocks are the last round of a mystery Round Robin project that ran in McCall's Quilting in 2007.

My wonderful ladies also reminded me of the golden sentence I'm so fond of. "Who says it has to be exactly the same as in the magazine" or pattern, or what ever. I'm so relieved and not only are all my organs in the right place again but my spirit is flying somewhere and singing happy songs. Blah, what a gravel. Lol. What can I say, I'm in the best of moods but.... also a bit irritated for allowing this to affect me so strongly. Well it's late, I'd better grab the spirit and go to bed.

Good night

Sunna.

Sewing room "make over"

2010-03-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

I've posted this photo before, it does not show the inside of my sewing room well, but I simply forgot to take a good before photo. I've dreamed for so long about decent furniture in this room, something that would not take much space but would at the same time be a good storage .

And I found it, two weeks ago when I went shopping in next town I decided to take a peek in the Good Will and there it was, waiting for me. A cabinet and two shelf units. And, best of all, I got it for a nickel, well almost. The quality is very good, as it should be, after all it's a former accounting office furniture.... Although I only have room for one of the shelf units I really could clean up the room and create some much needed space to move around. I was seriously cramped in there before.

This is an IKEA table that is just the right height for me to cut on and I put an old braided mat on the floor for my tired feet. I made this mat and more like it when my kids were little, the mats were for them to sit on, on the cold floor, while watching TV. I had given up on trying to get them to sit on the couch What is it with kids, floor and TV?

This is my sewing corner.

And here are the old shelf that hubby's Grandfather made. This room used to be a tiny garage for fixing small farming things and parts of machines. I was not hubby's darling when I demanded the cubbyhole as it was called emptied. It was an extra bedroom for years until I took it for my sewing room. When more of my kids leave the nest I will eventually get a bigger room and this will be a guest room. But the shelf will stay, I will put some prettier paint on them and maybe some curtains or something and they will be used instead of a closet. I have jet to rearrange what is kept on the shelf and hopefully I'll be able to get rid of some of my precious junk. Have you heard this sentence before? "But I might have use for it someday....."

This is an IKEA chair I bought last year at Good Will in the city. The reason it had been thrown away almost new is that somebody had spilled something on it. After my cat had used it to dehair him self for months you could not see the spills anymore. You could not sit in it in fancy dark clothes either. And although I have a good vacuum it could not handle cleaning this fabric.

So, I snapped off the back and unscrewed the seat.

And after pulling out the staples holding the old ugly fabric I put on this cheerful new, easy to clean fabric. I didn't notice that the fabric on the seat had moved slightly until after I put it all together and watching the chair and then my blistered fingers (from removing the staples from one and a half chair) I thought: So be it. I have no idea what the shadow is in front of the chair.

When I was at Good Will buying the accounting furniture I noticed this chair, I didn't think much of it but later I got thinking it would be good to let it replace the IKEA chair in the dining room for when I'm using the table there for quilting. So I went back last week and it was still there. One arm was hanging loose so I took it off. When I took the chair apart for covering the seat I found out there was only a screw missing, the arm was not broken like I'd first thought.

The fabric on the back is like new so I only replaced the fabric on the seat. Besides, I could not figure out how to get the back off the back. Lol.

I have bought new screws and replaced the arms and it's a really nice chair. It's German I think and has the name Dauphin on the arms and on other parts of it.

I am very happy with my "new" sewing room.

Sunna.

P.S. The IKEA chair replaced the old chair in the sewing room. I have trouble with motion sickness and the seat was somehow loose and I could not fix it. I really disliked that chair, after having almost puked a few times when it moved while I was deeply consecrating on my sewing.

Tired blogger.

2010-02-13T05:34:00.000-08:00

I had named this post "Lazy blogger" but then kicked myself in the butt and from now on I will stop calling myself lazy when I'm tired. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia on October 29. last year and from that day I've been working on my diet and exercise. Although I will never get well as this is a chronic disease I'm going to get as well as I can. I take all the advise and help handed to me but it's my body and my life so it's up to me to get better. That's my take on it anyway.

We went ice skating for a few days in early February but then it snowed for two days, not much but enough to make skating difficult and for almost a week now it's been warm so the ice is all watery and no fun. Here are DD2 Ebba and Hubby.

And that's me, as you can see there is no snow to speak off and much less today after the thaw we've been having. I've said it before and will say it again. It's plain not normal.

Last Saturday was my guilds mystery day. No one figured out what we were doing until we were told in the end. It's a message board with pockets for the three p's, pins, paper and pens.

Mine turned out dull because of the color of the fabric I chose as main fabric. That is one of the risks when you are doing a mystery.

So to fix this I sewed the black frame you can see half finished in this photo.

We used buttons to hold the cork tile secure. Pretty buttons on the front.

And plain buttons in the back.

This is how it looks finished. I like it.

Here is a close up of the owl. It was a fun to make. It was the first step and totally threw us, you should have heard some of the guesses along the day as to what we were working on. An apron, a Phone book cover, a remote control holder and from one of the oldest lady a detailed description on how this was to be used it the bathroom to hold female things for our monthly.... you know, how the slot for the pen would be ideal for the tam.... Wont say more but that got us laughing.

I handed the Log Cabin top (from my last post) over to our Hero Quilt Boss who shoved us this quilt that had recently come back from the woman who has machine quilted all our Hero Quilts. She does this for free and we will be inviting her to come to our retreat in May with our guild paying for her. I hope she will be able to come. She came to our retreat two years ago and is a really nice woman.

This quilt is going to a man that had to have a new heart.

Have a nice day all.
Sunna.

All kinds of sewing,done and dreamed off.

2010-01-29T07:05:00.000-08:00

Here I am again, have finished repairing an Icelandic costume for a friend of mine, also made an apron and a shirt to go with the costume. Here it is finished, if you click on the photos they will enlarge and maybe be a little clearer.

This is before repair.

And this is after.

I put the next three photos here so you could see how different the gold work is, you could put fifty women together and none would be wearing the same pattern in their gold work.

Here is mine, the flowers are from my great aunt but the eight parts (don't know the name) with the chain attached are from my grandmother, both from my father's side.

This belongs to DD2 Ebba, I bought her gold work from a woman that sells old gold or silver work on commission. It was all black and broken so it was not expensive but cleaned up very nicely. That did cost some but it was well worth it.

While sewing for my friend in the dining room I totally meshed up my sewing room while looking for items I needed. There was no way I could do anything in there until it was cleaned up.

And I did, although it's not so obvious in this photo, but there are loads of stuff either in a big black garbage bag (clothes needing mending) under the stairs outside the sewing room or in some other hiding places where I hopefully wont find them. Any time soon.

Look at that beautiful thing I got from hubby's parents for Christmas. This great wood thing to hold my rulers. I'd seen one at my MIL that a local carpenter made for her and admired it so much, both with words and touch lol, that she had him make me one. It fits well in there.

And this is what I've been doing for the last two days, well not the whole days, the blocks were made by various members of my guild and I sewed them in this top that will later be made in to a hero quilt, for some local hero.

And then it's my dream, would this not make a great wall hanger. This picture of flowers is painted on the panel in a small church in Northern Iceland. Hubby and I went there last weekend to attend a funeral and it was so beautiful and peaceful sitting in the church waiting for the ceremony to start, looking at the flowers, both on the walls and in the front, all the time feeling the heat of the sun on the side of my face, as it shone through a side window. Today was the first day since sometime in November that the sun shone through the windows in my living room. I was going to make the traditional sunny pancakes but I'd forgotten that the milk car comes on Fridays too (not only Tuesdays and Thursdays as it used to) so there was no milk. Oh, well there's always tomorrow.

This is the altar in the church Skinnastadur, it was built in 1854 (I hope I remember it correctly) and as I said, it's a small church who holds maybe 120 people so there were many that sat in their cars outside and listened to the ceremony on the radio. The woman we were saying good bye to was married to my mother's cousin, she was a wonderful, warm and caring person.

You can see through the windows that there is not much snow outside, it's the same here where I live and it's plain not normal. We've been having unusually warm weather most of January and then we hear on the news about abnormal weather in other parts of the world. In a normal year we would not even have thought about driving 740 kilometers to attend this funeral. I'm glad we could and that we did.

Sunna.

No quilting.

2010-01-10T12:56:00.000-08:00

I got my blog fixed, it was so easy it was almost funny, mostly embarrassing though and although I watched it fixed I would not be able to repeat the actions taken. I better not make those glories again.

There is not much happening here that has to do with quilting but I've been sewing a lot, repairing an Icelandic costume for a friend. Also made her a shirt (only have to finish around the neck) and an apron. I've been sewing the gold peaces on the corset today and my fingers plain hurt, the velvet backing for the peaces was in such a bad shape I fitted a bit of card board inside it (between the old paper sheets) and getting the needle through it takes a push plus it's a real challenge hitting the right spots when pushing the needle up through the fastening holes. I'm pleased with how it's turning out, there were dents in the black velvet where the gold peaces had been before but I managed to raise the velvet with steam from my iron. The corset was much to long when it was first made, then my friend had someone to quick fix it which was done by shortening the front of the corset and then removing two of the gold peaces but that really did not make anything better.

I'm going to finish the corset before I go to sleep, then it's the skirt tomorrow and hopefully I'll finish the shirt on Tuesday. After that I'm going to start practicing my quilting, I really, really would like to get some control over my free motion quilting.

Sunna.

Happy new year.

2010-01-02T15:15:00.000-08:00

I want to wish all my blogging friends a happy new year. I've been trying to comment on blogs for a few days and have finally realized that there must be something wrong with my setup or whatever because I don't get a word for the word verification. You must think I'm a bit slow, not figuring this out sooner but I've had a dreadful cold since December 26th and it simply wont get better. I've woken up for the last two days feeling much better, so happy and hopeful.... for about ten minutes. Yikes and double yikes.

Today has not been all bad though, I'm finally getting my energy up to a normal level since it totally crashed on our second day of Christmas. In Iceland Christmas starts at six pm. on December 24th, many go to church then but we have the milking and feeding to do so we never go. Then it's dinner, at our house it's pork with all the trimmings and after that, around ten in the evening, it's present's time. I got some lovely presents but can't show them jet as I still have not been able to fix the problem with the icons on my blog. It's not that I'm writing in Edit Html, wish it was that easy. Sigh. I've been waiting for THE COUGH to get some better before I get on the phone with a friends hubby who is a computer wizard, she (my friend) said the other day that I can use him (the hubby) as I please. Now that is a true friend or what. Lol.

To explain the capital letters above: how come when having a cold I can never get on the phone unless after a few moments I get these awful coughing spells? sometimes it does not stop until I throw up Another sigh.... a big one. Am I feeling sorry for myself or what???? Well somebody has to. Lol.

So, back to Christmas, December 25th is Christmas day and our first day of Christmas. It's a red day and also the day the Jule lad (the Jule lads were a nasty bunch of hooligans who, now a days, have seen the errors of they're ways and matured into the same character as Santa Claus) who came to town last (on Dec. 24th) goes home. December 26th is our Second in Christmas and is a red day too and on this day the Jule lad who came to town on Dec 23rd goes home. And so it goes until all thirteen Jule lads are gone to their home in the mountains where they live with their parents, Gryla is their mother, big, mean and ugly who eats the naughty children and the ones who don't get new clothes for Christmas (what a dreadful folk lore) Leppaludi is the Jule lads father, a tiny bit of a looser who is completely oppressed by Gryla and is never allowed to leave home.

The last Jule lad to go is the one who came first and he goes home on Jan 6th but that day is always called The Thirteenth. As it's the thirteenth and last day of Christmas. It's the day most people take down the Christmas ornaments and the Christmas tree and in the evening there is a bonfire (in turns in our town or the next, it's in next town this year) because we are burning out the Christmas (also by burning down the left overs of the candles used during Christmas) and it's also a magical night when cows can talk and the hidden people are traveling to new homes through our world. So there are hidden people singing and dancing at the bonfires and in later years also Gryla and Leppaludi with their thirteen boys and also all kinds of other creatures. It ends with a beautiful fire work show. I wont go this year, I usually don't go, it's just to darn cold to be staying out doors for so long.

I wonder at the direction this post took. It was just supposed to be a quick happy new year post. Well, I guess I was in the mood for a long talkative one. It's long after midnight here so I better go and make hubby sooo glad and happy as he tries to sleep through my cough spells. We have been taking turns in leaving the bed, he to sleep on the living room sofa or me to sit in the kitchen waiting for the coughs to finish, hot lemon water helps a little. I sure wish I had not developed this acute allergy to codeine during a hospital stay two years ago, it was the best thing to temper my coughs. Hm... that reminds me I used to own an inhaler (for asthma) to use if I got a cold or if I had to go out in cold weathers. I threw it away after I stopped smoking twelve years ago because the trouble with cold weather lessened. And I so seldom get these types of cold anymore. I'm having an aha moment here, lol, I'll phone the doctor on Monday if I'm no better by then.

I hope you all have a good productive and at the same time rest- and peaceful year. I sure hope I will.

Sunna.

2009-12-27T04:34:00.000-08:00

Oh, I totally forgot what I was trying to blog about on Dec. 24th but in Iceland Christmas starts at six pm. that day. Here it is, it's plain and simple.

Merry Christmas to all.

Blog trouble.

2009-12-27T04:28:00.000-08:00

I'm having a trouble with this blogging thing. My fault entirely of course, but although I caused it I simply can't fix it. I was trying to post some photos on Dec. 24th and blogger was giving me some trouble, instead of giving up until later I stubbornly started poking buttons and right clicking. I ended up making all the options like inserting photos spell checking and so on disappear and can't make them reappear. Can some good soul out there help me. It would be dearly appreciated.

Sunna.

Graduation.

2009-12-20T16:16:00.001-08:00

This was supposed to be the last picture in the post but I forgot it until to late, I'm not very good at adding photos to the posts to begin with. This is the Fractured Star done and posing for a photo just minutes before it was on it's way to a wedding with us on December 12th, I got a phone call on the 6th with the news and an invitation to the wedding. The morning after I took the top and spent the next five days basting, quilting and binding it. And I made it, with time to spare. Barley. Lol. I like how it turned out. DD1 and hubby are the holders.

This is what last week was all about. DD1, Steina's graduation on last Friday. I was busy all week finishing her Icelandic costume which was her graduation present and also baking for the party that was held yesterday at her grandparents home. Our house would never have coped with all the guests she had invited so I was so relieved when my darling MIL offered her home.

These photos were taken after the graduation, she was so happy with her costume but I have to shorten the belt because it slips down. It's not supposed to so big gap between the chain and the belt. Most of the silver is from my grandfather sister, I had to have the flowers on the sides made though. My aunt had a silverwork embroidery on her costume but I simply don't have the patience for it (I've been doing goldwork embroidery for near two years now and it's so boooring)

Here are the sisters, I've already made the costume for DD2 although it's two and a half year until she graduates. Steina was supposed to graduate last spring but everything got awry when she got mono last winter. She did not get better until late June when she had her tonsils removed, but they had gotten to be a HUGE problem because of the mono. We are all so happy that she has finished collage and that she's well again with healthy color in her skin. It's taken her so long to get rid of a really ghastly pallor.

Yup, that's me in the middle and I think it's only right to mention that both my girls are wearing higher heels than me. Lol.

And here the grandmothers have stepped in, my mom on the left and MIL on the right.

The school hosts a graduation dinner for the students and their family, we have to pay a small price for everyone but the food is always superb, DS2 graduated in spring 2007 and I'm amazed again how the school cook can make such a great banquet without charging us with higher price.

Steina had the most guests with her. Here are her friend Thordis and DS2 Johann. He is sick with flu but would not pass the opportunity to taste again the food prepared by his favorite cook.

My mom.

Smari, DD2 Ebba's boyfriend and my FIL Jon.

Steina and me.

My MIL, Munda and DD2 Ebba.

Ebba and hubby.

And Steina.
DS1, Jon had to work so he could not be there with us.

All the photos we took at the church where the graduation took place are so dark that I wont show them here but Thordis took photos too and I hope I'll remember to ask her to upload them in to my computer. Or download.... or what ever.

Now then it's the wedding I mentioned at the beginning of the post. Here is the bride with her father. She's one of our summer kids, came first when she was twelve and stayed with us for three summers as a babysitter and a helper around the house and the last year as a helper on the farm. Later, when she was seventeen she lived with us one summer while working at a fish factory in town. A wonderful young woman and very dear to us. The men on each side holding cameras are her brothers.

The groom, a very nice and likable young man, with his father.

I´m seeing now that my camera is not so good. I took a lot of photos but most are so dark. Here is our priest, Agnes, with the bride and the groom and on the side is the bride's father holding the soon to become couple younger daughter, she was not happy to be taken from her mothers lap so the ceremony could take place.

In addition to the two daughters they have one boy but although they got married after having three children like we did they declined the notion of having one more "legally" like we did.

I just realized I haven't mentioned their names. She is Steinunn (Steina, one of our Steina namesakes) and her husband is Stefan. We wish them a happy and peaceful life.

Sunna.

Hubby's birthday.

2009-12-20T14:41:00.000-08:00

I'm late again with a birthday post as hubby turned 45 on December 2. I have no photo of him since he was a baby but this photo was taken when he was four months past his 13. birthday. He's wearing his confirmation clothes.

This is a photo from his first driving license so he must be seventeen in it.

I've been trying to get a good photo of him but he always turns away from the camera. Drat the man. I'm not going to show you the photos he makes a face at me or closes his eyes or some other silly thing.

These two photos were taken the evening before last at a dinner party held at DD1 school in a celebration for the graduation students and their families.

There will be more photos from this event in the next post. And by the way, hubby had a happy birthday. Lol.

Sunna.

Finished tops among other things.

2009-11-29T13:33:00.000-08:00

Here is my Fractured Star top, it was a mystery from Cynthia at Iowa Star Quilts I had fun making this even though the mystery had been revealed when I started it. The lighter borders are from the only fabric I had enough off to make wide borders, I think it would have been better with some other fabric but there is no quilt shop around here and I was determined to use from my "stash". I really like this top but it's not a good photo of it, I didn't want to take it outside for photoing because of the heavy wind today, I've learned my lesson since The Boxy Start top got so badly frayed corners last winter. I had to cut 1/4" off all around it to fix it.

And here is my Christmas Light top, a mystery from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville It was the same story here, I worked with what I had and also decided to use fabrics I've had difficulty in getting to play nicely with other fabrics, like the blue snow fabric (with white and silver snowflakes) and some of the red fabrics. Also the green fabric has gold trees outlined on it and I found myself always putting it aside when choosing greens for other projects. The red border has all the variety of red colors in it that are in the blocks and although I worried it would be much to red it sort of works out. All that said I kind a like the top. It grows on you. Lol.

My BIL and his wife had their birthdays a few days ago and I made those potholders to give them along with a barbecue pliers (hope pliers is the right word).

You can put your hand inside, my favorite potholders are like that so that's what I made for them. Talk about being self centered. Lol.

And lastly come two photos of blocks I made for a Christmas block swap at Quiltblocswappers on Yahoo. I made three like the block on the top and one like the one on the bottom.

I made one more top this summer from the launch swap blocks, also from Quiltblockswappers but after starting to quilt it I had to put it away due to a birthday party, mine I think and haven't looked at it again. And wont until the end of January but then I absolutely must finish it because my friend who's birthday present it was intended to be has had her birthday. Ouch.
That's it for now, until next Sunday.

Sunna.

My mom.

2009-11-24T15:09:00.000-08:00

My mom was born on October 14. 1939 so she turned seventy this year. I'm guessing she's three years old in this photo.

Here is a confirmation photo of her. She's thirteen and a half.

Twenty years old in her Icelandic costume.

She's oldest of four siblings. Younger were three brothers, this is the middle brother, Josep. He had Downs syndrome and was born the year my mother turned fourteen. He died when he was thirteen years old. I have only one vague memory of him.
On the left mom is with the oldest brother who is two and a half years younger than her and on the right she's holding the youngest brother who turned fifty last summer. I always look more at him as my brother than hers. He lived with us for a year when I was eight due to some illness my granny had.

This photo was taken, I think, in 1994 when she went to Florida to be at her nephews wedding.

This is probably taken in 2004. A hard fight with TB's in her kidney (left over since she was a baby) and then after no luck in healing, the removal of the same kidney has taken it's toll.

And this was taken last summer at my uncle's birthday party. He wanted to make something big out of turning fifty so he put a little announcement in a news paper and rented a place to accomodate the guests. It was a great fun. Palmi 67, Oskar 50 and mom, Hanna, still only 69. Lol.

My birthday present from hubby and kids were flight tickets and time off to go to my mom for her birthday. She did not want to make any fuzz about the day but I'm glad she changed her mind. We held a small party at her home but grrr... no one remembered to take photos.

Now I'm going to peak at some blogs before I go to bed.

Sunna.

Finally a new post.

2009-11-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

I've been of blogging and blog reading for three months now due to some health issues, it was only supposed to be two months but somehow time just flew by.

I turned 46 on October 8. so thought I'd make a birthday post about myself. I can't find the album with my baby photos so here I am three years old with my five years old brother at our younger brother's Christening .

My brothers

Christmas most likely at our grandparents.
On our way to visit our aunt and family by bus as my parents didn't own a car until I was about nine years old. I'm about five or six in this photo.

Seven or eight years old with my younger brother. We were very close when we were young.

Eleven years old, I put this photo in my wallet after I got it from my dad when I was a teenager and forgot for a long time to take it out and put it in a album, hence the damages.

Fourteen years old. I went through a very short makeup period the next year. I'll not show a photo from that time. What a ghastly sight.

Color photos taken on home cameras come out so dark when I scan them so there are no more from my younger years.

This was taken last summer when I was at a pizza place in the city with DD1.

I was going to put photos of my mom in this post too, but changed my mind. She had a big birthday so she'll get a post of her own.

Sunna.

Blogger finally let me in again.

2009-08-25T14:08:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get to my blogger site for over a week with no luck until now suddenly. And I'm not ready with a post. Lol.

I found this photo of a table topper I made a few years ago, only two fabrics and I was so bored that I didn't feel any longing to finish it until my friend saw it and was thrilled by how the colors were just the colors in her kitchen. She got the table topper two years later as a birthday present for two birthdays, it took me that long to finish it. Mainly because I meant to hand quilt it but my hands don't allow me to hand quilt anymore. So I picked out what little I had done by hand and machine quilted it. She's very happy with it. (Click on the photo to make it larger)

I've been busy sewing but there wont be any photos until later, I'm not taking the chance to upload photos from my camera while I'm here on my blog. If I loose it, who knows when I get in again.

I'm going to bookmark all the blogs I follow so I'll be able to read them when I can't get on my blogger site. I'm so behind on reading my favorite blogs but will read them tomorrow and the next day, in between quilting a quilt I sandwiched today. On Friday we are going to Borgarnes for a agricultural show and while there we'll be staying in a rented summer cabin (house) for a couple of nights and then we're going to the city for some quilty shopping (me) and spare parts and so on (hubby). DD2 will be coming along and her boyfriend will come from the city (where he's going to school now) to stay with us and maybe my mom will come for a visit too. I'm really hoping for a good weather.

Now I'm off to practice some quilting pattern.

Sunna.

Fractured Star and swap blocks.

2009-08-17T09:28:00.000-07:00

Since I finally got to blogger, we've been having connection trouble and blogger is one of the sites I can't connect to unless everything is okay, I'm not letting go. Lol. I've been doing some sewing now and then, and have made all the units for the Fractured Star.

It's a mystery I wrote about in an earlier post. I'm putting the blocks together as leaders-enders while making blocks for a swaps I'm in. I've never been quite happy with sewing from corner to corner without marking the line, but I'm also lazy so I've been "winging" it and not always satisfied with the result. So I finally started to think about a solution instead of being grumpy while "winging " it. This is what I came up with, instead of cutting the triangles off after I've sewed the line, I cut before and then sew both pieces. No more ripping out the seams, but I of course forgot to take a photo after the sewing.

This bloc and the next were for (I've already sent them) a quarterly block swap I'm in. We are nine women that sew a pair of 6" blocks and send out four times over a period of a year. These were mine for the first swap, now I have to chose which pattern I'll do for the next. We try not to do the same pattern twice, although there are a few of the same, but the fabric will be different so I don't think it will matter so much. This one is called Interlocked Square and was pure fun to do.

Here is a star pattern called Mosaic. I don't like the colors as well in this block as in the other although those are what I considered safe colors. Now I'm starting to sew scrappy 8" blocks for a one time swap with sixteen other women, due in the mail before September 1. I've got them cut up and they are not very difficult to sew so I'll meet the deadline easily.

I'm also in the process of cutting and sewing shashing for swap blocks I received recently. I'll post about them when they've made it in to a top. And I'm happy to say I've gotten a craving to do some quilting (machine) I've apparently stopped dreading it, and that feels so good.

Sunna.

Birthday, a day late, again.

2009-08-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday there were 22 years since that little boy was born, on August 16. instead of October 12. as he was supposed to. Always in a hurry. He was 4.4 pounds and 17.5 inches.

But he grew fast and by the time he was supposed to be born he was at healthy 9 pounds. He was and is a very cheerful and sweet character and quick to see the lighter points in life.

As much as I disliked having to use the bathroom in this stage of repairs (demolition) he just loved taking baths like this.

With granny Hanna. (My mom)

Here he is, proudly pointing at a message he wrote down after answering the phone for his dad. And yes, he's dirty, this was his usual appearance in the summers at that time.

In all the photos taken after this time until last year his glasses were at an angle so there is an ugly glare in his face. He was always bending, breaking or scratching his glasses, from the first one he got at three years old until about four years ago, when we refused to pay for any more.

Here he is fooling around with his brother earlier this summer.

He graduated from collage with good grades two years ago and then decided to get him self a truck driving license. He got a job with a truck company right away until he'd thought carefully and then decided what he wanted to learn at the university..... he's still thinking about it.

He's content at work and as long as he is, there is no rush. (I do ask though from time to time)
Happy birthday Johann Olafur.

My birthday girl from yesterday.

2009-07-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

I was going to make this post yesterday but there just wasn't the time. Twenty years ago this beautiful girl came in to this world five weeks early. That did not hold her back in any way. She is an extremely determined character, but most of the time you can talk her around. I can't find her box of photos, it's in a moving box somewhere that won't be unpacked until she moves in with her big brother so my photo choices were limited.

"I can SO use little sister as a doll"
(Three years old)

Here she is with her big brother, two years old at Christmas wearing her wedding dress.

That look on her face says it all. Wearing her Icelandic costume at Christmas 1994.

Confirmation spring 2003, here she's wearing another kind of an Icelandic costume. The jacket was her great grandmothers (on her fathers side) and she was absolutely not going to wear it, having a big bow on her chest like some ridiculous clown. No way.

So we compromised, she would wear it at the ceremony and later for the celebration she could wear a beautiful lace dress over white quart trousers her granny made for her. She got so much attention at the church and comments even from people she did not know about how gorgeous she was in the costume that she ended up wearing it for most of the day.

I took this photo last May when I was in the city and took her to my favorite pizza place.

And here she is at my favorite hamburger place, wearing my glasses so she could see her "teachers look". What a change.

We had a fine party yesterday evening with family and friends, but of course I forgot to take photos. Same old story. Lol. Happy birthday Steina.

Sunna.

Autumn weather.

2009-07-24T06:50:00.000-07:00

When we got up this morning we saw this looking out the window. Not something we are used to on July 24. It got me thinking about the man who named our country Iceland. Floki Vilgerdarson came here in the summer of eight hundred something and because there was so much fish in the fjord they stayed in (in the western parts of Vestfirdir) they got busy fishing instead of making hay, so in the winter all his animals died. The next spring was a cold one and when he once walked up on a mountain and saw over the northern fjords (where I live) and saw ice on the sea in the fjords he named the land Iceland. What are you willing to bet he was not in a good mood at the time. I know the man was a great viking, but what a looser.

The snow will hopefully be gone tomorrow as it's supposed to get warm again after today. Our cows were so happy when we let them stay indoors last night and this morning after milking most of them layed down, a clear hint: We are so not going out today. Lol. I've never understood men that insist on letting the cows out in a cold weather just because it's summer. And when the cows get sick those men get angry ... at the cows. What a loosers.

Today is a perfect day for sewing and reading, my favorite things.

Sunna.

I'm done, haymaking that is.

2009-07-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

Yep, we finished just before one in the morning (today). Two weeks, it's never gone so fast before and with no rain in cut grass and all the hay got a lot of sun it it. We are very happy and also a little out of steam or something, waking up this morning to loads of sunshine and no hay work, it just wasn't normal. Lol. We are usually beating rain by minutes (or not) finishing it all.

I can't find the memory card for my camera, note to self: do not loan my camera unsupervised to my DD1. lol. So I can't show you what I've bin up to in my spare moments (often during minor but very annoying break downs repairs) Instead you get to see what was intended as my vegetable garden. I made this space one summer next to the stable where it gets sun most of the day, ready to use the next summer, but... here comes the but. Our dog was so happy with the new private place I had created for her, I swear that corner was covered white with her droppings the next spring, and all the springs since. Yikes, I will never put an edible thing in that garden, well apart from the Chives that grow near the wall and are always clear. Maybe she doesn't like the way it smells. And the strawberry's grow in a rectangle made of wood which the dog leaves alone too.

The photo was taken in late June and the lavender? colored flowers are almost done blooming now. I have not bin able to find the English name for them or the other flowers behind them, but there are three roses also scattered around there.

And what I've bin up to... I love scrap quilt mystery's and have done two of Bonnie's, then last winter I saw another one at Mary's (you can see it finished in March 31 on her blog, so beautiful) and wanted so much to do that too, but where Bonnie is all about 1.5", 2", 2.5" and 3.5" strips, Cynthia, the creator of this mystery uses mostly 2.3/4" strips so as I've bin doing a much needed cleaning out of my sewing room I've bin cutting strips in that size as I refold and put my fabric in a new storage place. I don't really have much fabric but when I figured it was time to fold the strips (sorted in to colors) I got a bit of a shock.... Well, that's okay, there is already a new mystery started. Lol.

Now I'm off to milking, but if I beat Hubby to the computer this evening I will answer comments and e-mails and do some blog reading. I've really missed that and the friends I've made here.

Sunna.

Hay making and a difficult bird.

2009-07-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

We are very busy making hay now. Finished the fields on our farm a few days ago. Then it rained for two days so today we started cutting the grass on fields we rent from another farm (where there is no farming anymore) and hopefully we will be able to go straight on to another farm where we rent two fields because they're not needed by the farmers there.

Later we will start cutting on a farm that belongs to the town (no farming for years). We cut most of the fields there too. So lets hope there will be no rain. Please.

I want to tell you about one of the birds that make our job a bit harder and that's Kria or Sterna paradisaea, the English name is Arctic Tern. It's a beautiful bird as you can see here and here but it always amazes me how they can year after year lay their eggs in the most difficult (for us) and fatal (for the chicks) places. Here is one egg almost on the road.

And here is the parent, I could not get a photo of it attacking me, they are very aggressive when parenting.

Hubby doesn't like them at all (one had just taken a dive at him there), but I saved two little chicks (one was wet, just out of the egg) from the field and the thanks I got was droppings on my head and shoulders. Come on, where is the gratitude? Lol. Well at least they didn't peck at my head.

Those are our hay cutting machines. My tractor is a Case 575 or 585, never can remember which and hubby's is a Massey Ferguson 690.

Here is DS2 on another MF. Hubby made that one out of two broken down tractors (we bought just the parts we needed), the front part is an 265 and the back is 500 something. The machine is for turning the hay so it will get dry. This photo and the ones above are taken this evening. (About 10 o'clock)

But the following photos are taken after midnight almost a week ago. First is DS1 driving the MF 265 / 500 something. I don't know the name of the machine but it makes the hay go in to lines.

Then comes hubby driving the MF 690 with the baler. (He's fixing some minor glitch there)

Followed by me and my Case with the wrapper.

Then we had friends over from another farm. They had a problem with their baler and had borrowed our old one which had then broken down (after baling over 100 bales) So, it was conference time. You know, men and broken down machinery. An endless fascination.

Well, they figured out what was wrong with their baler, it wasn't really broken, just needed another way of working through the hay lines. So the conference payed off. We came home at two thirty in the morning and I was absolutely bone tired.

I've bin off the computer and will be for some time to come, but that's life.

Sunna.

One more swap.

2009-07-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

I've joined another swap group on yahoo. It's new and started with a launch swap that twenty women signed up for. We were split in to two groups of10 and are to make one 12" block for each swapper in our group. We choose the pattern and the fabric.

I put my blocks in the mail today. I wanted to make a difficult pattern that I've longed to do for some time and five blocks were like that. Called All Hallows Variation from quilterscache.com

Then life got overly busy, first I had to finish a graduation quilt with another one popping up at the last minute, a sudden wedding with 12 quilted table mats (partly paper pieced, yuck) for a present and my DD1 got mono last winter and with it her tonsils went berserk so they were removed 10 days ago. (At a hospital in the city)

Here she is before the operation with her new dark hair. I know she's not happy with me saying this but I want my blondie back. And I know the t-shirt is just awful, DS2 thought it was such a great joke and bought it, then grew so fast that it got to be to small for him. My girls use it when working on the farm (Their aunt really hates seeing them in it so they make sure to wear it all the time) Lol.

She was by the book in getting most of the problems that follow a tonsil removal. Could not keep food or pain killers down and on the fifth day (after she got home) she started bleeding and had to go to the hospital (in next town) for 48 hours where she got much needed nourishment and meds. (Liquid in a vein)

Although she's almost 20 years old and very mature we found it so hard knowing how bad she was feeling and we were not with her. She's getting better now but has lost 4-5 kilos and is so pale and her voice is so different and thready that people are always thinking she's about to cry. And that really makes her grumpy. Lol.

Anyway, back to quilty matter, I thought I was falling on time so I made five more blocks using another much easier pattern. This one is named Album, also from Quilterscache.com although I changed the dark/light setting a bit. I hope the blocks will arrive in USA before July 15.

I got a letter from Germany in June that had bin 28 days on the way and another from Canada that took two months to get here. Oh, and then one that took three months to travel from Canary (Spain) duh. Well okay, that one had taken a sight seeing tour to Finland but still....

Sunna.

In an after thought I think it's best to mention that I got lots of mail from Canary (my mom) that took only just over a week to get here, also three other letters from Canada and one from the Netherlands that arrived after a normal length of time. Also got a packet from USA days before some Canadian ladies got theirs that were mailed out at the same time. So there. Can you tell I'm a Libra. Lol.

Sunset, sunrise.

2009-06-27T17:16:00.001-07:00

It's after midnight but I went outside just now and the sun is so beautiful at this time of the year that I ran in to get my camera. The sun is much more brighter in reality and it's daylight outside. There will be a sort of a twilight for the next 2-3 hours and then it's daylight again.

A week ago we had the longest day of the year, now the days are getting shorter until December 21. which is the shortest day. I'm always so thankful for the Christmas, the holiday of the light.

Sunna.

I'm home. Lol.

2009-06-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that I came home last Sunday night. But I've bin very busy since and will be for..... well the rest of the summer I guess.

I started making these table mats as a wedding present before I went to Reykjavik. I had made 12 paper pieced flowers and cut out all the fabric needed except the binding which I had to buy in the city. I thought it would be a piece of cake to finish it at my moms. Not so. Took me days and that was with my moms help. So I did not do half of what I'd intended to do, like taking walks, visiting friends, going to movies and so on. But it was worth it. I really liked how the table mats turned out. (The table they sit on is a tiny table since the WW2, I'm told the Brits had one for each soldier during their stay here in Iceland)

I got confirmed what I already knew, that I'm absolutely not a PP person. Me and the ripper were "pals" while paper piecing the flowers. I usually have such a good eye for forms so it's a puzzle to me why I cant seem to find the right size of a fabric for each number. Or to make it fit properly. Or to..... Lol. I've decided that it would be best for me to leave this kind of sewing alone. But.... I did not let this bother me as I was determent to let only good thoughts follow the mats to the happy couple.

About the sleep apnea, I got a thing to put in my mouth while I sleep that keeps my chin from falling back. The first night was not very easy but I've slept well since and feel much more refreshed when I wake up than I've felt in years. And I'm not tired and sleepy all the time.

That is just so great.

Sunna.

The Golden Circle.

2009-06-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I wrote I would show and tell about when Hubby and I became tourists. We took part of the Golden Circle (left out Thingvellir). First we went to Gullfoss where it was raining a bit so we did not walk any nearer to it. The link I'm giving you tells and shows much better than I can about this great waterfall.

Next stop was Geysir where we stayed for quite a bit. Hubby had never bin to either place before so it was great fun showing him around. As you can see there was not much happening with old Geysir, I think he's not doing much these days. But you never know.

I don't remember the name of this geyser but it does not erupt and I think the beautiful blue color comes from the coins people let fall in it.

And here is Strokkur, my favorite. When I was a kid I was much more interested in the moments just before it erupts than in the actual eruptions. To see the huge bubble rise and fall, rise and fall again and again until it bursts and it erupts, is to me still the most fascinating thing.

And here it erupts.

Here the water is falling back down and some of it changing in to steam. There is also steam coming from the hole.

We took a walk around the area and in the mean time Strokkur erupted three times that we noticed and saw from distance. When we came back there were lots of foreign tourists waiting for the next eruption. We took a seat on a bench nearby and I had so much fun watching one couple. The man in yellow jacket is holding a camera to capture a photo of the woman in light blue jacket with the eruption in the background. It was a bit of a wait and once I noticed the woman making faces at the man and I realized she was exercising her facial muscle's.

At last she could stop smiling. Lol.

Then we headed home but on our way was this: Kerid Be sure to watch the slide show in the link, there are some great photos there.

And here I am at Kerid.

Hubby was not interested in posing for me.

And here you see what I miss most from the landscape around Reykjavik. The lava, there is no lava in the part of Iceland where I live now. I took this photo out the window of the car while driving down from Hellisheidi and the smoke in the back is from Hellisheidarvirkjun which is an Geothermal power plant. I only found out now while looking for the link that it's open for people so we will definitely go there next time.

When we arrived back to my mom's place this was parked across the street. A great bull made of wood, one iron ring and pieces of rope.

A very good day.

P.s. Found this when looking for links. Check out the recipes on the left.

Sunna.

The City.

2009-06-15T14:52:00.000-07:00

Hi all, I'm in the city now and have bin since last Tuesday and (bummer) with no Internet. Me and Hubby went to my uncle's 50. birthday party on Wednesday and then played tourists on Thursday and went sight seeing on the Southern part of Iceland. Will post photos after I return next Sunday.

Hubby drove home on Friday but I stayed as I'm seeing a dentist about my sleep apnea. It's my last appointment tomorrow but I'm going to my cousins wedding on Saturday so until then I'm just having a very nice time with my mom. And better jet, she's gotten a new Internet connection so I'll be able to go read some blogs now.

Sunna.

Deliberate absence.

2009-05-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

Because I'm so slow in writing my blog and commenting I decided to stay away from blog land while finishing two graduation quilts. Well they are done and have found a new home.

But first.. here is the first quilt I completed (at least as I remember it) I hand sewed these big Grandmother Flower Garden blocks and hand quilted it too. It was a (few years late) birthday present to my uncle when he turned 40. and now I'm going to his 50 birthday party next month. He likes the quilt very much and sleeps under it every night.

Here is a quilt I started in April. It's a variation of Bonnie's Patches and Pinwheels. This quilt went in the mail last Friday to a friend of my DD1. There was a mix up in the information I got from her so I'm afraid the quilt was a few day late, but has hopefully arrived now.

And here is the Boxy Star from a previous post ( again Bonnie's) quilted, but it's so big I could not get a good photo of it inside and it was raining on Saturday when I finished hand sewing the binding down mere 30 min. before we went to the graduation celebration for DD2 boyfriend.

It was fun making those quilts but I was totally exhausted when they were finally out of the house. I take my hat of for those women that whip up a quilt in a day or so. And then sew down a binding in the evening watching TV. Phew, that is so not me, just the binding takes days.

And now my darlings..... I'm going blog hopping.

Sunna.

Retreat. Nupur 2009

2009-05-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

On Friday I went to my guild retreat. It's how we end each winter.We go to this place, Nupur. It was a boarding school, mainly for children from farms around but also for older kids all over the country. There's bin no school there since early 90 something. Instead it's used as hotel in the summer. The people that look after the buildings live there and the wife serves us when we stay there during the retreat. (They don't run the hotel, and it's not open jet). I took this photo upon arrival on Friday at 12.30. It takes me 45-60 min. to drive there.

This is the dining room where we sew and dine.

This is how it looks during the sewing.

And then we clear three rows of tables for the formal dinner on Friday night. (Delicious as always) For coffee, breakfast, and soup lunch on Saturday we just sit around one of the ping pong table. They make great work stations.

We made three tops for comfort quilts for what we call heroes at home. We had sent quilts to Reykjavik (the city) to be given to children in the children hospital there. But then came the idea to give rather to individuals in our own area that we feel are needing comfort. These tops were for three girls.

This bear quilt is not like our usual quilts because one our member is related to the youngest girl and wanted to make a center for the top.

We have a bank (paper box) that we can deposit 7 1/2" log cabin block to when ever we want. Then when someone brings up a need for a quilt there is a top ready in no time. Although we sometimes call for some extra girlie or manly or... blocks, depends on the receiver. This quilt and the next are for twins.

When I took the first photo of this top I saw a block turning the wrong way so I fixed it but now when I loaded it on the blog I see another. The fourth up left. Go figure. Lol.

Then there was the informal show and tell. We just drape our finished projects from the winter around, on a platform in the corner or out in the hall and then we have to run to get a photo when someone has got the maker to hold it up for a shoot. Lol. We have talked about doing a real show and tell but some of the women are so shy it would never work. They would then stop bringing their work. I only got a photo of few of the projects.

That quilt is mostly hand appliqued by the woman on the right. Her name is Gudrun and she hand quilted it too. It's stunning.

This half made top was being held up shortly before we quit and I don't know if its a table topper wall hanging or a quilt top. The maker is holding it. Her name is Soley. It's really beautiful.

And then I got a photo of this great quilt when we were leaving. Johanna, the maker, once had a bit of a scrap that could only be made to an 1 1/2" x 2 1/4" rectangle. Every time she had some left overs she cut them to that size and then made this quilt when there was enough. She hand quilted it.

And this is the back. Johanna was very careful to not let her shoes be seen. Lol.

This was as always so much fun and sitting by these huge windows I also had good time watching the weather changes. From rain to sun to snow to sun ..... The window in my sewing room is both small and high up on the wall so I only see the lower part of hubby's work car that is parked outside. I had not realized how much I miss seeing out while sewing.

Sunna.

P.s I worked on Bonnie's Patches and Pinwheels that I've bin making, first as leeders-enders and then working full time on it for some time now. The blocks are all sewn. Will post a photo when it's a top.

DM quilt, crocheted afghan and other things.

2009-05-03T10:04:00.000-07:00

Hubby needed to use the computer so here is the rest of my post. While I waited for my turn again I finished sewing down the binding on this Debbie Mumm sampler. It was a BOM on her site in 2007 and I finished the blocks in December that year. Then nothing happened until last November when I decided to use it as a practice piece for my machine quilting. I like the sashing idea but I found out that I'm not a sampler person, which I find a bit funny because I like seeing other people samplers. This is the only thing I've made from DM patterns.

I talked to my uncle about the sewing machine. It's not from his MIL but from his son in law Grandfather who was always fixing things for friends and family. Uncle thinks the sewing machine was never taken back by it's owner because the shuttle (not shooter like we say) is missing. He had found out it's from Germany and was made in 1919. There is more about it here
and here. I'm not finding the sites I find very useful, but then I'm not very good at searching.

This is how far out of the ground my daffodils are. Sorry about the dog .... in the front, (only noticed it just now) this is what comes to light when the snow goes away. I have jet to take the rake and clear all the happy things our dog has left in the garden this past winter. Also bones are not friendly to my lawn mover.

The crocuses are always a happy sight. The first rays of color every spring.

And here is the crocheted afghan my Granny made me when I was a teenager. I used it on my kids beds and I was surprised when I found it (on a shelf in the laundry room right in front of my eyes when I'm folding laundry, duh) how small it has become after all the washings it's bin through. I remember it shrunk a little every time, but it's at least 20 cm. smaller now than when it was new and let me assure you, it's not that I've grown taller.

That's it for now.

Happy sewing and gardening.

Sunna.

Challenge.

2009-05-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

I've bin challenged by First-time Grandma to show the door to my home. I thought I could do better than that because I'd just found an old photo of the farm we live on. It's taken on March 4 1988 from the other side of the river. It looks pretty much the same today, apart from the two shacks on the right. They were old hen houses not in use anymore and were torn down the following summer. That winter, 1987/88, was unusually snow light.

This is the door we use for guests and us, when we are not in working clothes. This door is under the stairs that lead up to the old better entrance, it's not very big but as you step down when you enter it's usually okay. (People don't hurt their head very much. Lol.) In summer there are flowers in the old milking bucket and can.

When we took over the farm in June 1987 this was the finer entrance and the one we use now was the lesser. There was a trapdoor in the kitchen floor (on the second floor) and a dangerous stair to the first floor. My hubby's Grandparents always went out to go downstairs unless the weather was absolutely crazy, then they moved the kitchen table and a kitchen bench to get to the trapdoor.

They gave us a new and safer stairway. It made the kitchen smaller so we took down the wall to the front room. (Where you came in through this door) We use this door as a summer door and because it's so old, the wind blows right in around it, so we got the white door that we close in the autumn. (We would have to have a new door specially made because it's so small and that is just to expensive).

I would love to have you over for a visit.

Sunna.

Cows and one old sewing machine.

2009-04-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

I wrote somewhere (here or in an answer) that I would show photos from the farm someday, well it's not so much to see outside in the winter and hard to get decent photos of the animals inside although the houses are well lit with floor lights they don't light up the photos. But it's the beginning of spring and we have better daylight so now you will meet a few of our cows. The first one is Brydja, her color is brindle and she has just given birth to a beautiful little heifer.

Here she is, the color is not quite right in the photo, she's much darker, but will most likely end up with the same color as her aunt (mother's sister). Our calfs that are born red can grow up to be dark or light brindle (no calf is born brindle), sea gray, or sea gray brindle or all kinds of red, light (sometimes pink), medium and a few shades of dark red, like the aunt in the next photo.

Here is auntie Brussa. She has red ears, the top of her head is red, around the nose is a very light red color and a line that runs from head to tail on top of her back is also red. The rest is very dark, almost black.

Next is Lygi, she's the only cow we own at the moment that is pure black, well, with some white. I think the red you can see is from the camera flash. The red one beside her is Sleggja.

This is Grabrok, she's sea gray brindle. That is not a common color.

Karma was born red and white, but turned out the same color as Brussa.

Now this is Hogvaer,that means modest, she was the picture of modesty when she had her first calf's last September so that was what I named her. It only lasted about a week, that cow is pushing, really pushing, but she is ever so modest in her pushyness so she got to keep the name.
She had twins, they had bin dead a few days, most likely because they were so huge and all tangled together, this is the second time in 20 years that a cow has twins the first time giving a birth. She is light red and white.

Here are the first twins born from a young heifer and luckily for the mother they were very small. This is Dyrd, she and her sister are light red and white with just a few slashes of brindle here and there.

The other twin is named Dasemd. They are so much alike and very close, they don't like it if they are not side by side.

This is Litla-Raud (Little-Red). She is light red and had her first calf about two months ago. She has not produced any milk that has bin good enough for selling, hm, could not even be used to feed the calf's. We are waiting for her to get the penicillin out of her system so we can slaughter her. We don't like to use penicillin but in cases like hers we have to. She got so sick after giving birth, got a high fever and the works and would have died if not for the penicillin. But that meant two months waiting after the last injection. By then we were pretty sure she would never be any good , she only got better of the fever but nothing else got cured.

And last, but not least. Here is our Hyrna. She's a dark red lady of an unknown age. We are her third owners. The first one died, I think in 1997 and then our friend bought her. She had given birth to at least two calf's by then. A year later the new owner moved to another part of the country so we bought her. She is still very light of movements, and only got an udder infection for the first time when she last had a calf. That was in September, ehem, 2007.

Yes I know, I know, it's not efficient and profit giving to feed an unpregnant cow for such a long time, but she was put in a stable for a few days with some other cows and a bull. They were all waiting for the car that would take them to the slaughter house, while waiting she got in heat and the bull got loose and impregnated her, at least that's what hubby hoped for so he held her back when the car came. She will give birth next September and that will be her last time. It's bin getting harder and harder to get her pregnant and I'm pretty sure this was her last egg.

She's quite a character, she's easily offended and shows it by not looking at you and not allowing you to pet her, which is something she dearly loves. When hubby put her in the horse stable last autumn (we needed all the stalls in the cow stable for milking cows) she got so offended she did not look at him for all the weeks she was there. When I came to check on her and she was so moody that I just had to laugh, she gave me one wounded - murdering look and it took me days to make it up to her.

She has the most beautiful horns and is very careful where she positions them when we are near, unless she's grumpy, then we need to push at them to get her to behave. And she's plenty grumpy these days, she's gotten so fat that hubby is feeding her less quality hay, it does not do animals good to be too fat.

Now then, here's a sewing machine that I got last autumn. When my mom visited her brother one day, he and his wife were cleaning out a storage room and asked if she thought I would be interested (was I ever) in this old sewing machine that had belonged to my aunts mom or granny. I'm not sure which and have bin meaning to phone to get more info. It's so beautiful, it was really, really, dirty and black all over. You could not see the name plate at first look, but now it turns smoothly although I'm told there are some things missing. Like the shooter? meaning the bobbin in today machines. I think.

I've tried to search the Internet for information about it but have come up with nothing. The plate says CLEMENS MULLER (with two dots over the U) DRESDEN and then TRADE MARK under the magical beast. If anyone knows something about it or where I can find info, I would be so happy to hear about it.

Well that's it for now. I'm off to bed, this post took way to long to make. But that's okay, it was fun.

Sunna

Signature blocks.

2009-04-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

I have traded a siggy twice now and gotten two of them in return, first (some weeks ago) I got one from Mary and she told me that the sunflowers are the state flower for Kansas where she lives. She appliqued this gorgeous little Sunbonnet Sue on it, the blocks are 5" with seam allowance, so you can see how small the pieces are.

This one came last week and is from Annelies in the Netherlands, in Iceland it's called Holland. She told me that she's bin collecting the three monkeys who hear no evil, see no evil and say no evil since she was 15 years old. They are beautifully drawn here.

I scanned the siggi's (learned that from Mary) and the quality of the pictures is much better than of a photo. I've learned so much about computers and such since I started blogging. The English tech words are still a problem but I'm hopeful I will eventually learn how to use all the gadgets on blogger, you know all the sidebar things and stuff.

Sunna.

Thank you's and Boxy Star swap.

2009-04-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

First of all I want to say thank you to all the lovely ladies that commented and wished Ebba happy birthday. She tried to comment to thank you her self but does not have a Google account or something, so on her behalf I also say: Thank you.

I of course forgot to take a photo of her on her birthday, but here she is last Christmas, waiting for her dad and brother to watch a movie. I listened to it from the sewing room, next to the living room, I don't watch TV much anymore, I like sewing or reading better.

In a recent swap on the Quiltville Swap we swapped units for Boxy Star (you can find it here). Here are the sets I sent. Seven sets of four units, one block is made of four units.

Here Is one block I made when making all the units.

Karen, our lovely swap mistress sent a surprise with the units I got.

And here is one of the sets I got in return. I liked them all.

Due to a misunderstanding on my part, I made much to many units, so I had enough to make this quilt. I put one swap unit with three of mine to make most of the blocks. What I like most about swapping is the variety in the sets I get in return. And I think they all play nicely with mine. It was so much fun sewing these blocks, and whats more, I even had fun putting them all together in a quilt. Lol. I have never made a quilt with sashings and cornerstones before. It's super easy and I'm sure I'll use this method again someday.

There was so much wind when I was taking this photo that one corner got badly frayed. I think I'll have to cut 1/4" of all around the top to make it better. I'm going to use thin fleece batting and flannel backing. It's going to be a present so it will be revealed later where it goes.

Sunna.

Birthday girl.

2009-04-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

And today is the day, 17 years old and a long awaited driver's license in just a few days for Ebba.

We got married on June 15 1991 but didn't have time then for photo session. Then one day in November I woke up and realized that I would not fit in the dress much longer. She used to tell people that she is in the photo too.... in mommy's tummy.

She had so dark skin in her first year.

And proudly shows the gaps .

On horseback with daddy.

With twin calf's that her cow Bukolla gave birth to.

She just loved to ride the vacuum cleaner.
In a national costume I made (with help) for her older sister.

Now her teeth have started over growing so no more open smiles.
She's in orthodontics now and has started to smile with open mouth again. Beautiful.

And lastly, here she is, not wanting to stop to pose, unlike her sister.

Proud brother's also in in new outfit (but not a costume) It's me on the side.

Clean house and some baking.

2009-04-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

I've bin busy both yesterday and today cleaning out winter dirt and baking. Why? Well the house really, really needed a good cleaning and all of a sudden DD2 who will be 17 tomorrow wants a cake party instead of soup or steak. For years it's always bin: "Oh, just something simple" but now there must be this cake... because dad likes it so much and that cake... because dad likes it so much and this..... you get the picture, only one cake she mentioned was for her, because she likes it. After two days of cake listings and what dad likes I finally asked her: "What is it with your dad and the cakes?"

"Well you see it's actually dad that wants the cakes.....obs"

You know something, every December (well almost) I offer to bake all the cakes he wants, but no "It's not that important event" (it is to me) or " Nothing fancy, you're tired" (true, sometimes) or better jet "Don't bother, no one will come anyway" Yeah right, his whole family lives in this town and always shows up for birthdays, invitation or not. LOL. So come December there will surely be another cake party and....... that man will not be asked again.

Here is my Ebba on her fourth birthday

From left to right: DS1 Johann, DD2 Ebba, DD1 Steina, their cousin Ragnar and Ebba's girlfriend Kristin.

Oh, and spring visited today, lets see what tomorrow brings.

Sunna

Spring....... are you nuts?

2009-03-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

Those are glass mats I made when I was having the cold last week. They are paper pieced and measure 3" and I've bin meaning to make them for some time now. I drink so much water with ice that I put cotton batting in them and they are great in absorbing the dew from the glasses. Five is an odd number I know but I ran out of energy. Now on to spring.....

We had almost a week of warm sunny weather mid way through March, when it got cold again, then we got one heavy storm last Wednesday evening and yesterday afternoon a blizzard started that is still going strong and the weather man says it will be snowing tomorrow with 15-20 m/s wind.

Not nice, oh no. So I go a bit bewildered when I was reading a local news site today and saw an advertisement from a sports store saying: The spring is here, get your bike (buy it from them) and start bicycling. Hm..... the spring is here..... where? Hallo, yoo hoo spring where are you?

I would so love to have spring arriving early and I try to be optimistic but this is so bizarre it's not even funny. And I will absolutely not be buying a bike from that store. Yikes.

Sunna.

My father.

2009-03-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

March 24 1939 was the day my father was born, so if he had lived he would be 70 years old. I have no idea where that photo is taken or how old he is in it, only know that he's the boy in the front. Will you just look at those clothes. LOL.

This is his confirmation photo, so it must have bin taken in 1953. He's 14 years old.

I don't know how old he is in this photo, but I'm sure it's taken before his 20 birthday. He was a quiet man, and absolutely not in the front of everything. But he was loyal and fun to be around most of the time (could be moody at times) and he absolutely loved Jazz.

This is the last photo taken of him, I think in early 1983. He died in a helicopter crash (in to the sea) not far from where I live on November 8 that year. He was a mate (first mate) and a captain with the Icelandic Coastguard. (Can't find a photo of him in a uniform at the moment). He also served as a navigator on the Coastguards helicopters or airplane for three months a year, so that's the reason he was on board. They were four that died that night. Two were found right away but my dad and the pilot were not.

Then over 5 years later, in January 1989 a darling fisherman from our town got a body in his shrimp trawl? not sure if it's the right word. Anyway, it was known right away that it could only be my dad or the pilot, and it was positively my dad.

I always thought that I was okay with him being missing, because that's how he wanted to go. Just go in to the sea and no fuss. But in the middle of the funeral I just broke down. Later I realized I had never really grieved for him so this was finally a closure, and it felt good. I had him buried here in the town where I live instead of Reykjavik where we are from. I thought it only right, here is where he was brought when he was found, and here I can take care of his grave.

I find it funny/sad that as I was 20 years old when he died I thought him ancient, but now when I'm over a year older than he was when he died I feel not old at all.

Sunna.

2009-03-22T05:19:00.000-07:00

I received the Sisterhood Award from Scrappy Quilter today, and I have to say I'm honored. I have found so many wonderful people in blogland and some, I hope, are becoming friends. She's such a great person and check out her project and dream: Quilts for the North.

In order to officially be the recipient of this prestigious award, I need to do a few things first --

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received your award.

Here goes:

Quilting in Oz Mary is a wonderful lady, I love her blog, her take on life, her strength and it's just plain fun to make friends with people of another generation, both older and younger, to get a totally different view of so many things, both big and small.

Stitchin by the Lake Marlene has such a great way with words and is able to write a wonderful stories about ordinary happenings in her life. It's a great gift to be able to give laughter to others without hurting or using people along the way.

Dr Quiltmom Now here is a blog that has bin a great help to me in quilting my quilts. She gives me courage to just get on with it. And most important.... to finish. LOL. Also a fun read.

Julies Blog Jule is a nice and talented lady who welcomed me to Quiltvillechat (you can read about it here) when I first became part of that and also was the first to welcome me to blogland. And a teacher, I so totally respect people that have a talent to teach children.

Quiltin Grandma Donna is another wonderful lady who has helped me with my blogging, lets face it, I'm not good at computering. I like visiting her blog, it's somehow calming, I often wonder if we can somehow perceive the personality of the blogger through the blog.

Button Counter I like blogs like Monica's, that after visiting put me in a lighter mood and make me ready to tackle what ever comes my way. Hm.... I'm getting sappy here. LOL. Actually, all the blogs I have mentioned make me feel like that.

I wont nominate more blogs as I don't comment on so many, and I don't feel it's right to nominate a blogger that I have not made a connection to. Does that make sense? Anyway, I had a very hard time to start commenting, I so often felt like I was intruding.

Now on to other things. I have finally beat the cold (well almost) and am thereby able to do things that need concentration again. I have done very little knitting or sewing because I become so restless when sick, like a caged lion. And it's so frustrating because I know that if I only would get in bed I would be able to sleep it off in few days. I read a little too, but mostly I just ambled listlessly about the house between milking and doing chores. Now, enough of that.

Here is my first Siggy ever. It's my name. Sunna means the sun. My middle name Reyr is the Icelandic name of a grass plant: Anthoxanthum odoratum. I will not be using that in the block. I thought about it but figured it would look like a tree when finished. LOL.

Here it is finished, but a little bit small and not quite as the instruction says, so I will make another later today so I can mail it off tomorrow.

Oh, and it's not wise to sew the beads on before you assemble the block. Grrrrr.

Sunna.

Crocheted afghans and one little quilt.

2009-03-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

I saw so beautiful crocheted afghan on Marys blog yesterday, that her grandmother made.

That got me thinking about some of the ones that live in this household. The first one is Hubbys, that his Granny Ebba made for him to fit his bunk when he was little. It just came home a few weeks ago after staying with his mother since.... well for ever. Lol.

The next one I don't know who the makers were. It was my grandfather's and has his name on it and the date 8 May 1920. He was born in August 31 1888 so it's thought that this afghan was made (by some women that did this for some extra money) and given to him when he left his home to go farming in another county. He died in January 16 1939 and my father was born in March 24 1939 .

It's made of coarse wool that was dyed red, black, violet and light blue, but only the red and black have kept true. The crocheting is all done from the right side, so they cut the yarn after every row and started again from right to left. Then the ends were threaded in the end links to secure them and at last the borders were made going around the eight leaf roses (and there by hiding the ends). It's got lots of holes in it so for keeping I roll it up on a curtain hanger and then put a bed sheet over it.

I was thinking when I was photographing it that it would be fun to make a quilt like it, but I would most certainly make it controlled scrappy. Each rose measures 3 1/2".

The white afghan was made by my great aunt Gagga who was my grandfather's sister and had a hand in my father upbringing and when he was 12 years old he moved permanently to her. It was always on her bed with a blue satin bed cover under it that shone through the holes. Also a great idea for a quilt.

I made that one when I was pregnant with my oldest. I was so fed up with all the bright, light blue and pink people were telling me to use that I made some color choices that I feel today are not so pretty. But I was happy with it then and quite proud of my self, did not use any pattern and most importantly....... I finished it. Although I should have made one more row to make it wider.

There is one more crocheted afghan that my Granny Bubba made me when I was a teenager but I can't find it at the moment. I believe I know where it is, but I have a bad cold and its cold in that storage room so it will have to wait to some warmer time.

But I did find this little quilt while searching for the afghans. It was made in 1984-5 for my oldest by his aunt. (My SIL). The blocks, except three of them, are high quality white cotton we call damask here in Iceland. This was a project she did in school in Denmark where she was getting extra education as a teacher. As you can see (you can click on the photo to make it larger) she did stuffed work in two blocks, using the pattern in the fabric. And the three blocks are the same fabric (white with blue "dots") as the blue (blue with the same kind of "dots") in the back that is folded over to the front, the corners are mitered and it's quilted down.

Well bugger it, I just took a good look at the photo, I should have ironed it before photographing.
Hopefully I will remember to do that i the future. Lol.

Sunna

Old Kitchen Aid.

2009-03-14T16:14:00.000-07:00

This is an 52 years old Kitchen Aid that I got 22 years ago from my great aunt Gagga. I let my DD1 have it when she came home for Christmas and then did what I've bin going to do for so long. I finally made a cover for it. Not that I've used it much since I got a new KA 17 years ago.

DD1 chose the fabric. (One of few I had enough of for this one fabric project) It's designed by an Icelandic woman, Gudrun Erla but I don't remember if it's RJR or what. (I think so) And I sort of made it on the go, no pattern and hardly any measuring. Which is not so good, you just can't see it in the photo. Or maybe you can. Lol.

Now, you may have noticed the top photo is small and a bit to the side. Thats because I got a bad case of "I can do it my self" when I had no idea what I was doing. Ended up shrinking the photo in to it self without being able to fix it instead of making a small version to send in mail or use in the blog................ and it will stay this way.

I've so had it with computer geeks that come to my aid when I have made a royal mess out of something I'm trying to do. It goes like this:

What did you do?

Nothing, just hit those buttons you told me last time.

What buttons?

Those. I point.

What were you working on?

I explain.

You should not have used those buttons. Pokes around a bit.... what... what have you done? You are not supposed to be able to do that.

Oh, believe me, I can do anything I don't intend to.

Now I'm off to bed to try to sleep off this awful cold I'm having and have had since Wednesday. I was very generous and shared it with Hubby so he has no sympathy for my at a time like this evening when my head hurts, my body is in pain all over and I'm feeling totally sorry for my self.

Well somebody has too.

G'night.

Sunna.

Productive weekend.

2009-03-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

I went bright and early, well around 10 o'clock, lol, on Saturday morning to participate in a sewing day with my guild. We were sewing nearly to 5 pm. And here's what I did. I finished the units for the Boxy Star blocks I've bin making for a swap I'm in at Quiltvilleswap. I then ironed them and got them packed up yesterday so I they could be in the mail to USA today.

They look like this when sewed together to make one block. You can see lots of Boxy Star quilts at Bonnie Hunters Quiltville site.

These hourglass blocks were my L-E (leaders-enders, you can also read about them on Bonnies site) while I was sewing the Boxy Star units. They will be used in the Chunky Churn Dash quilt when those blocks come home from our swap hostess Deedee in Canada. I'm almost half way through with the hourglass blocks. And I have hopes that the CCD blocks will arrive any day now.

Then I started sewing strips on eight donation blocks that I had prepped a few days before. I finished them in the evening after milking, got them in to an envelope yesterday and they went also in to the mail today. They are heading to Jan in Australia.

I took my camera with me to the meeting because I was for once going to take photos. Here is the result. Wow, lol. Two photos of Johanna modeling for Hugljuf who knitted this gorgeous .....
I have no idea what you could call it, jacket or sweater, what ever.

Anyway it's made of very fine Icelandic wool ( called "one spun") and I think I'm right when I say it's original Icelandic design, I remember it was very much in to own a dress in this pattern when I was a teenager. (For grown up women. lol)

Today I started mending clothes that have bin piling up for a while. I will try to finish that tomorrow and then perhaps I will sit down and knit my self a pair of wool socks that I started the winter before last. I usually have half knitted socks and mittens stored away for when the urge to knit hits me, then I make up to 11 pairs until one day the urge passes. (My fingers and shoulders are thankful for how seldom this hits me)

I found the box with the socks and mittens today while looking for yarn to use mending a sock for DS2. I knitted one round on each mitten and felt such a peace, it's a good way to slow down when things have bin in a rush around me.

And yes, I knit each pair at the same time, 10 rounds or so on one and then the same on the other. I'm always trying to finish up old yarn from Granny Bubba, mom and others so there is a little bit of this and a little bit of that (together with newer yarn from a sale years ago) and knitting both socks or mittens at the same time helps making them look like they are from the same pair. Lol.

That's all for now.

Sunna

Not a boy, but a man.

2009-03-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

Well here he is. As promised. He's an old soul, always feels best in a checkered flannel shirt and jeans. All the better if they are a bit dirty. When he was in his teens, he was always so happy when his Granny Munda brought old clothes from his great grandfather. They were just perfect for him. I still remember the look on his Granny face the first time she came and realized the clothes she intended for her son to use working the farm would be used by her oldest grandson to school.

Have a nice sewing weekend. I will. Yippie, it's sewing day with my guild tomorrow.

Sunna

Birthday boy.

2009-03-04T04:55:00.000-08:00

Jon Ingi

On this day 24 years ago my oldest was born 12 minuets after midnight. And was I ever relieved. They had bin looking at the crown of his head for six hours when the doctor said that's enough and pushed on my stomach, and so he was born. A beautiful blond haired, blue eyed boy.

A proud police man.

Two years old with little brother Johann Olafur

Four years old with little sister Steinunn Dilja
She can be anything he wants
even Karate Kid.

Seven years old with little sister Gudbjorg Ebba,
I guess he felt her hands were cold.

I don't have a new photo of him but you can see him with his siblings here. I will take a photo tomorrow when he comes for dinner. He can't come this evening because the firemen have a practice/exercise this evening and he is one of them.

He works as a electrician and is single living in a little house on the farm where we live. The house is old, the oldest part built around 1910-1920. A true fixer upper, so he's always busy.

Sunna.

Donation blocks.

2009-02-28T08:23:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of the blocks I've made and sent to Australia for donation. They will be made in a quilt there and given to people that have lost everything in the terrible bush fires that have bin so much in the news.

Pjakkur, our indoors cat has to lay claim to every thing I make. I had forgotten that he was in the house (he is very fond of going out in good weathers) and while I went to get my camera he jumped right in.

I did not read the instructions about the blocks until after I had made a few so ended up making enough for a whole quilt because they are supposed to be 10.5" squares, but I made them 12.5" and no way was I going to cut of 2" of every side. And they are asking for "boy" colors in the quilts, not pink/violet like mine. I blame it on that I'm still in a girly mode after the Double Delight, and , well my unending failure...... unread instructions.

If you are interested you can go here and read all about it.

Have a happy sewing weekend

Sunna

Trash catcher/pin cushion.

2009-02-23T03:24:00.000-08:00

This is my trash bag, as we call it here in Iceland. There has bin some discussion on the Quiltville chat about them so thought I would show you mine.

I have made many of these as gifts. I use a plastic container to make the ring that holds the bag, and use the lid to trace after on a thick paper to make the plate that the cushion sits on. Then cover it with batting before I sew the fabric together. Better to remember to slip the strip of fabric that holds the bag inside before you close the seam. I'm talking from experience here. Lol.

I don't know how the fastening of the cushion to the plate is usually done, but I learned to use what we call "French sipper" I think it's called velcro? or something. Then you have to remember to sew one part of it on the cover of the plate before..... see above, lol, and the other under the cushion.

I like the tile idea in stead of paper for plate, because the bag can get heavy with trash and though I let it sit on a rubber mat it's often not enough.

(Here was a photo of the bottom of the bag, but I accidentally deleted it and have no idea how to insert it to the same spot. It does not play nice and always goes to the top, so I'll just leave it out.)

I also use the lid to trace the bottom fabric so the bottom is round as the bag. I thought that was how it was done when I made my first, I was not right there but I liked it so that's how I've made them all.

Ups, I forgot to mention I use slippery fabric inside the bag, makes it so much easier to empty it. Also talking from experience here.

Now, at last, I thought I'd show you what I do with the poly blends that have found their way in to my home. They make great shopping bags. I've also made some of these for gifts.

Have a nice day all.

Sunna.

My Grandmothers Garden.

2009-02-18T05:27:00.000-08:00

I made a Grandmothers Garden quilt for my uncle in my early quilting years. I don't have a photo of it, but he has taken some and will hopefully send them to me someday. It was totally handmade and hand quilted. Won't ever do it again.

Now I had so much fun making the blocks so I started making a lot of them with out any purpose. Then I got the brilliant idea to applique them on white squares that I have a lot of from Granny Bubba. Left overs from making bed sheets and such. Not all are the same material, but who cares, after all I'm such a thrifty quilter. Lol.

Then it got laid aside for few years, because putting the blocs of a quilt together is for me a total bore. And then I got another brilliant idea. Bonnie Hunters "leader enders". So while I was working on the first two steps of her latest mystery, Double Delight, I finally put the top together. I have no photo of it, cant put it on the laundry lines because it's so big, but I will try to make a link here, if it does not come through you can go to my guild homepage here
and in the top right corner choose Myndaalbum and then Januar 2009. I'm in photos 34-39.

Now lets see what happens if I publish this.

Sunna

P.s. The inspiration for this post came from reading about a donation quilt on Mary's blog. It's a marvelous quilt. Somehow the righteous speller has given up on me, hope my spelling is not making this to hard to understand.

My children and their quilts.

2009-02-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

These four beautiful individuals are my children. They are not like each other, neither in looks or temperament. But they are all mine and all have the same father. (I have bin asked veiled questions trough the years lol)

I made them each a quilt made mostly or completely of HST. The white background fabric are old curtains from their granny Edda ( my fathers very good friend) and the colored fabric is from all over, my granny Bubba, my great aunt Gagga, my mother, my hubbys BIL shirts and of course my own stash.

This quilt belongs to my older son, Jon Ingi. He is first to the left and his hair is really rather blond. It's made in red black and gray, the colors of Massey Ferguson, his favorite tractors.
This set up of blocks was not what I had intended, I don't remember what quilt mag. I was working with, but I did not like it so moved pieces around till I was happy. I still like it.

This one belongs to Johann Olafur my younger son, his hair is dark brown. I was looking through new bought McCall's Quilting June 2004 when he walked by, saw this Lady of the Lake quilt , stopped and said: Now that is a beautiful quilt. Need I say more? (It's called Lady of Hope in the mag.)

I was a little late in the day taking these photos, so the colors don't show right. These are beautifully jewel green and purple/violet colors for the princess, my older daughter. She started talking early and talked fast, but not always so you could easily understand. If asked what her name was she answered: Deina Dilla Ohnadotti issa bissa Osi Boluvig and when people just looked at her blankly I translated: Steinunn Dilja Hognadottir prinsessa Osi Bolungarvik. She's my blond girl on the far right, and yes, horrors of horrors, her younger sister is taller.

And last but not least, here are the left overs, made up as Village Square from McCall's Quilting October 2003. This quilt was what started me on the HST. And for a long time after I finished these quilts I shuddered at the thought of making triangles again. But I am over that now. lol.
The borders are from Quilters Cache and were needed because my younger daughter Gudbjorg Ebba, got a bed with out head and foot boards (unlike her siblings) after the top was finished and then needed to be bigger.

And here completes th estory of my children's quilts.

Sunna.

February mystery.

2009-02-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

In our guild we meet on the first Saturday every month from October to April and the first weekend in May is when our retreat is held. In November is the Christmas meeting and in February is the mystery meeting. This year it was held in our town and was a huge success.
We made these cute little sewing purses.

Mine is in the bottom left corner, my color choices are often very unlike others. The two ladies responsible for creating this years mystery did absolutely great job. It was based on a Japanese magazine (with almost only bags and such) many in our guild like very much.

And this is the inside. I had bin thinking just the other day that I needed to make something to help me holding together my applique stuff, and this is just it. Great day, good company and yum, tasty food.

Mystery finished.

2009-02-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

The quilting .

This is my Orange Crush, Blue Crush is more like it as I chose not to use orange in it. It's a mystery from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.com As of last Tuesday it's finally finished. And was delivered to it's new owner on Wednesday evening. As my luck would have it, Jon had bin ashore for a day but had just left when I came. His mom liked it and after we had spent some time watching tv we took some time in admiring the quilt as it lay on his bed. Hope he will like it.

The back.

The final result.

Icelandic farming animals.

2009-02-03T13:18:00.000-08:00

Drats, because of computer crash last summer I don't have photos of any other animals in the computer than my cat and dog, and they don't count in this subject so to not post with out a photo: Here is one of the most beautiful waterfall in Iceland, Dynjandi also called Fjallfoss. It's here in Vestfirdir, in Dynjandisvogur in Arnarfjordur. (we have one fjord (fjordur) and many firdir (fjords)).

I got a mail about the horses in a photo in a earlier post, so I thought I would give you the trail (as we say in Iceland) to a page where you can see some of the colors in cows, sheep and horses that live in Iceland.

We are very proud of our animals, who are pretty much of the same stock the first settlers brought with them, starting back in 874. There was some import of new blood both in sheep and cow some time in 1800 and early 1900, but it always proved to be a disaster because of all kind of sicknesses that came with it. So now there are laws against import of horses, cows and sheep, and I hope they will stick to it.

Dogs and cats have to stay in isolation before allowed in to the country, but it is some other way with the pigs and birds (hens, turkeys), they get new blood regularly but there are strict rules.

Oh, yes the trail, its here, I'm sorry but is does not seem you are able to click on the photos to make them bigger. But you should get the general idea. We have a very colorful live stock.

Sunna.

More last summer and itty, bitty quilty things.

2009-01-30T06:13:00.000-08:00

Hah, now I can write between the photos, never could before when I tried. Hopefully this will continue. lol. Now here are from right to left: Asmundur, a friend of ours and owner of one of the cars we were driving, he is a truck driver and a farmer, next is DS2 a week from turning 21 and then DSIL. The photo is taken from the top floor of a deserted farm house we were taking a better look at. ( the only house left standing)

And here you can see one of the roads we drove, I hope you can figure out where the road continues as I don't I have the right words to explain it. To the right and doooown is the rocky beach and then the sea. Scary.

Now as to the O C, I have finished quilting it, the binding is ready, but I got lead astray by another quilt that I finished quilting before the O C, and have made the binding on that, and sewed it on. Will sew the binding on the O C later today and hopefully hand stitch both of them down watching tv over the weekend.
Have a nice weekend.
Sunna

Last summer.

2009-01-30T05:28:00.000-08:00

Well, they were supposed to sit in another order, so the bottom photo is my corner with roses next to the clothes lines, as you can see in one of the winter photos.

The next one up is my other flower corner in my garden, my late father told me when I moved here that I would be living on the borders of the inhabitable world. I just laughed, but my flowers and trees agree wit him, always have. To the right in the photo you can see one of my birch trees, yes I know they are not big, I bet you would think they are just 4, 5 years old, bot oh no, the are almost 20 years old, and did not start to grow until I put a wooden fence behind them. It was so rotted I took it down in the summer of 2007, and am, of course, always just about to put up a new one. Well, they lived through last winter, why not this one to?

Now the man with the girl on his shoulders is my Hubby with 16 years old DD2. They just love to make stunts like that.

And in the top photo are also my Hubby, but this time with just turned 19 years old DD2, taken on a little Sunday drive in the beginning of August. She was visiting with her boyfriend.

Hm, found more photos, that means a new post.

Winter.

2009-01-30T05:01:00.000-08:00

I wanted to take a photo of my clothes lines this morning, but could not find my camera. Any way it was to dark. So after milking and all that I napped my hubby's camera for the shots. When I was looking at the results I saw there were 210 photos, well I got me a good laundry time while downloading. I had forgotten some of the photos that I had taken last summer when, as now I could not find my camera. It's not that I am old and forgetting things, oh no, I have a DD2 who sometimes borrows and she forgets to tell me about it. A ha quite right.

I have not figured out how not to make the photos always go to the top of the blog so until I have, I will just post a new with the other ones.

Sunna.

String quilt and Crazy quilt.

2009-01-26T14:41:00.000-08:00

I got a comment from Mary L. at quiltinginoz about this resize pictures program and decided to give it a try. To make long story short: Downloaded, installed, spent long time last night trying to get in to it to start resizing, had DD2 boyfriend look at it for me tonight, and he of course, being young and of the computer age quickly saw that the only thing I have to do is go in my picture folder, right klick on the photo and ta da I get as one of the options: Resizes picture. Duh, did I ever feel embarrassed, but that is the fact about me and computers. We dont really macth.

Any way, thank you so very much Mary, this is such a great program and a time saver.

String quilt, also called: My very own.

And Ialso got a comment from Marlene at stitchinbythelake about my string quilt in the header. It made me realize I have not told you about it.

I made this last summer when I had the grumpy time with the O C (see earlier post). The foundation for the center blocks are used drier sheets from my mother (it's as big as the sheets very many that I had received form her at that time) and the piano border and the corner crumb blocks are made using sheets from a phone book . The thin middle border is dark, kind a moss green and the outer border is dark brown, they only look black because I did not take the photos until last december. Yeah I know, great thinking, but I have only recently started to photgraph all my quilts and sewing stuff.

I will take another photo when we see the sun again (saw it last some time in november), that will be in a 5 days or so, depends on the weather, and then it wont be so dark and gloomy. I have never got a feeling like I got when I made this quilt. When I was putting the top together I suddenly felt so strongly that this was my quilt. I could not have given it away. My MIL came by at that time and asked who would get it, and when I told her this was absolutely mine, she said good, its about time.

Crazy quilt.
This was the first "big" quilt I started, but not the first I finished. It's not very big, I dont have the measure, but I am 163 cm. and it comes to my shoulders. It was supposed to get in a small quiltshow (we dont hold shows with awards, just for fun)(oh, ehem, it would never have won any awards) but I took it to Reykjavik (our one and only city 6 hours drive away) to show to my mother. Wich I did on my arrival, she asked who would get it and I said (out of the blue) well how about you. Why thank you dear, she said, laid down in front of the tv with it and continued watching Survival. Its still with my mom, I did not have the heart to take it away.

It's made with all kind of fabric from me , my mom, her mom, my MIL and SIL. The batting is cotton, and the back is flannel. I quilted it with buttons of many sizes and colors. The non cotton fabrics have not lasted very well, and the cat my mother had for a short time did not treat it nicely. But my mom still likes it.

That's all for now. Oh, I forgot, Im more than half way through quilting the O C.
Sunna.

Ps. When I wisited my mom in december I took my string quilt with me. I put it behind my back and told her that what I was about to show her was mine.

Learnig, or at least trying to.

2009-01-25T14:18:00.000-08:00

Will you look at that . I have a title.

Now the O C or the Orange Crush is a mystery from Quiltville .com that I have bin working on for, well I don't remember how long, but it is quite some time now. Okay, truth is, I got so grumpy at it when I could not get the borders to behave that I put it away for a few months. But hopefully now it will be finished soon and get presented to one of my extras. (I have a few extra kids)

A young man who is a friend to my sons and had a second home with us when he was a teenager. He graduated from collage and engineering last spring and was supposed to have the quilt then, but best laid plans and so on..... By the way, his mom is a friend of mine, actually through him, and she calls me his other mom. He works as a engineer on a fishing ship (not a boat, its bigger than a boat) that his father and grandfather own.

Now the O C was the first thing I had not written properly about, the other thing is the swap that I am part of. It is a quiltville swap group on yahoo. This swap group was started to unclog (for lack of better word) the quiltville chat that is also on yahoo and both were started by Bonnie Hunter, a great mystery creator. I am doing another mystery from her now called Double Delight or DD for short.

I have finished step one and two but had to put a hold on it, same as quilting the O C, to sew the shirts and apron I wrote about in the last post. Now as that is finished (and boy am I happy about that) I will continue with the others.

Oh, and the thorrablot last night was a success as always. Lots and lots of laughter. This year group of 11 women did a great job. I will not be in the next one, its always read from a scroll at the end of the entertainment and then the scroll is handed to the next foreman. But as its bin six years since I was last in the group I may expect to hear my name in two years or so. Now there are not jet photos on our local web news so here is one since 2001 from bb.is.

The lady on the right is Helga and she is married to my FIL oldest brother, the other woman is Inga, married to one of the brothers of Helga. I and my two SIL are next to them but blogger cuts us of. Hm, not worthy of seeing, are we now. Lol.

Now this will be all today, it is taking much to long to post. I just hope I will be faster with more practice. Oh, one last thought, I read about a new mystery here I just might give it a try.
(have you figured out that I have just learned how to highlight other blogs or websites, lol)

Sunna.

2009-01-23T14:24:00.000-08:00

I have just talked to DD1 and she has given me a lesson in: Stretch/skew so now I have a bunch of photos to put in my blog. She said maby she should become a computer teacher for the elderly ha, ha, very funny.Tonight I will start with my OC witch I am now quilting bit by bit using my Janome 6600.

As it is I have not had much time to quilt as I am finally finishing my shirt (started almost 2 years ago) for my national costume (upphlutur) and making another shirt and an apron for my DD2. The apron is almost totally by hand but not as much the shirts. Will post a photo later.

The reason for making these now is that my DD thought she would be using her upphlutur this evening, she was wrong, but its great to have them finished as she will wearing the costume in May at my older DD gratuation from collage.

Now as for me . I am going to a dinner and a ball tomorrow night, where all the women will be wearing a costume, either upphlutur or peysufot. And most of the men will be wearing the mens costume. Not hubby though as he has outgrown his, (or our storage space for our clothes is so shaggy that its making his clothes shrink, hm I wonder)

We bring our own food (old Icelandic food eaten out of a wooden ... ah, I dont have the word, its not really a box but lets leave it at that) and drinks, get entertained by 11 women that will set up mini plays and sing songs about things that have happened in our town for the last year and at the dance later in the evening and night we will be dancing the "old dances" in between the newer ones.

This dinner and a ball is called Thorrablot, I will not try to explain the what and why of it, but Thorri was a month in our old calendar and starts to day, the third friday in Januar, which is also the farmers day, today very few men are farmers so its considered more as a husbands day. We, the wives and sweetharts are of course very nice and loving on this day. Well more so than usually. Hm, let me finsish this so I can go and watch my hubby with loving eyes as he snores in front of the tv. Lol. Sew happy.

2009-01-22T16:38:00.000-08:00

ot
Finally, it happened, I have a PHOTO, here is a photo of my six sets of ten Chunky Churn Dash blocks that I sent to Dee Dee the swap diva in Canada. They have arrived so now its waiting time. Some are jet to arrive, so I don't know when return time is.
I am having a hard time with the photo thing, seems I have to shrink them first, because if not it takes forever to upload, at least longer than my patience is. Hm, this does not sound right, any way I have forgotten how to do that , the shrinking thing that is, so will phone DD1 tomorrow for a repeated lesson, now there is a girl with more patience than I. Well sometimes.

2009-01-01T07:30:00.000-08:00

Well hello, this is day one, and my blog has started with big help from DD1. Hm, she actually did all the work, but I will take over now and stumble on. Always so optimistic. Will try a photo next.